I Have Something to Tell You A Memoir

I think this book is about what it means to grapple with being gay when there were in some ways sort of bromides of tolerance but a deeper way in which being gay was still something to be afraid of or afraid you were.

But I think the book is for any young person who's ever felt like a fish out of water or a person who has felt like they're forced to conform.

And I also think it'll be a great resource for teachers and parents to understand what young people are going through, what they could be going through.

And you might be unaware of that. And also the pain and the hurt that is inflicted upon young people by ignorance and the good that can come from having these conversations and making space for everyone.

I think we're constantly coming to terms with who we thought we had to be when we were younger, who we thought we could be when we came out. And then that space in between where you're like still policing yourself.

I feel like we're in the middle of a reexamination right now for kids that were born in the 80s in this period of growing acceptance but not acceptance.

And I think this book is about what it means to grapple with being gay when there were in some ways sort of bromides of tolerance but a deeper way in which being gay was still something to be afraid of or afraid you were.

But I think the book is for any young person who's ever felt like a fish out of water or a person who has felt like they're forced to conform.

And I also think it'll be a great resource for teachers and parents to understand what young people are going through, what they could be going through.

And you might be unaware of that. And also the pain and the hurt that is inflicted upon young people by ignorance and the good that can come from having these conversations and making space for everyone.

You're also the best-selling author of a young adult memoir called I Have Something to Tell You.

When I started two years ago, I was just thinking about writing the book that I wanted to hand my younger self, the book I wish I could have read in eighth grade.

But what I really just wanted to do was write the book that I knew teachers and parents could use, especially young people.

I sold out my hometown, which was very humbling. 675 people in Northern Michigan wanted to have that conversation.

I taught eighth grade. I'm a dad, I wrote a completely age appropriate book.

The thing I want people to know, especially parents, is that I could have benefited from a 10-second conversation with them when I was younger if they sat me down and said, it's okay to be yourself.

It's the book that I wish I would have had when I was in eighth grade.

I grew up in conservative rural northern Michigan where I did not know any out people. I thought that I had a sort of disease. I thought something was wrong with me.

And this book is an opportunity to tell young people that there is nothing wrong with you. There are millions of people out here who love you, who will support you.