Queer YA Data
I compiled several release lists into one comprehensive searchable, sortable source for queer Young Adult fiction published in 2020-2022.
This started as a midterm project on queer representation in New York Times bestselling YA. That data turned into a reported piece on book bans and the adolescents most affected by them. Now that data is this data. And this data will continue to morph and expand until I decide that it won’t anymore.
Approximately 30,000 YA books are traditionally published annually. Of that 30,000, an average of 300 titles are queer. That’s 1%. My aim is to show how that 1% distributes their representation among the identities that make up the LGBTQ+ umbrella.
This database is in no way an exhaustive list. I used Reads Rainbow, GoodReads, and my personal library as guides. This data mainly represents traditionally published books. I took some personal liberties and removed titles from the original lists if the representation was merely “LGBTQ+ side characters.” This is for queer books, not just books with queers.
My hope is that this can serve as a jumping off point for further research into queer representation in books for younger audiences. I plan to add more release years to this database when I have the time and resources, and to continue expanding and filling out the columns as they exist now.
If I’m missing a big title, feel free to use my contact page and let me know. If you plan to use my dataset, I’d love to chat. It took me quite a few more than a few hours and I’ve got a lot of thoughts on the topic.
And if you don’t want to do the work yourself, here are some of my initial findings.
2020
Here’s how the individual identities were represented.
Sapphic, lesbian, and wlw identities are collapsed into the “wlw” category. Gay, achillean, and mlm identities are collapsed into “mlm.” Casts with unspecified identities are grouped as “queer.” “Other” includes ace, aro, gender non-conforming, and pansexual identities, among others.
Many books have multiple forms of representation (which is fabulous), hence why the total number is greater than 215.
2021
And, again, here’s how the identities breakdown, with the same disclaimers and methodology:
2021 saw an increase in the number of queer books published compared to 2020, with a significant increase in the number of books published within the wlw and mlm categories. This could be because of a push for more diverse voices in publishing following the Black Lives Matter movement, which encouraged many authors to actively find space in editors’ offices.
2022
And for the breakdown:
2022, again, saw an overall increase in queer books published compared to 2021, but the distribution of representation remained relatively similar across all three years. And 300 books is still nowhere near a significant or fair portion of the publishing pool.
“What Am I Supposed to Do With This Dataset?”
Well, I’m so glad you asked.
You can use it as-is to find new books for your GoodReads “TBR.” You can make a copy of the set and make some adjustments, add categories, or search around.
You can look at the data that I’ve broken down here and make some observations. Something I find particularly interesting, for example, is the fact that far more sapphic books are published than achillean, yet mlm titles are still more likely to make it onto a bestselling list.
What I strongly encourage you to do, though, is to place the preliminary data that I’ve broken down for you here in the context of our lived experienced.
Young Adult novels with LGBTQ+ “themes” or characters have been disproportionately attacked in book-banning efforts since 2022. According to a recent PEN report, Florida banned over 3,000 more titles in the 2023-24 school year than in 2022-23, and 39% of those banned books contained LGBTQ+ characters. Last year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis explained that he is trying to stop people from “Attempting to use our schools for indoctrination,” insinuating that queer stories are written and promoted with the intention of pushing an ideology or lifestyle. Essentially, 39% of banned books have the supposed power to convert a child to queerness.
This ideology is bunk enough as it is, but if you need more data to convince you, I did an analysis of New York Times Bestselling Young Adult titles from 2020-2022 and found that LGBTQ+ books truly aren’t circulating among the population at a level that would correlate with an uptick in queerly identifying adolescents. In fact, queer stories barely even cracked into the bestselling lists across those three years — they represented about 14% of all unique titles. And as we see in the data I outlined here, queer stories in YA are few and far between; conservative talking points against queerness only encourage a further lack of representation in an already lacking field, and that in turn harms the queer kids who already exist, not just the hypothetical ones that might come out because of a book.
“The structural framework of the publishing industry really pushes heteronormative stories, even in ones that contain queer characters,” a trans YA author explained to me. I’m keeping his name protected. “Straight, white editors have more of a formula for what they believe should be published, and those editors make up a lot of the big five [publishing houses].”
He said that though it feels like there are more books generally about the queer experience, there’s a lack of specific stories, which typically end up being more relatable and thus, sellable. Many stories lack the substance that heterosexual ones have, which can reduce reader interest in a title. Though queer books might take up shelf space, they tend to fall short of the emotional and intellectual depth that draws a broader population of readers in.
And the practicality of actually writing a quality queer book becomes much more difficult when finances are considered.
“Authors of lesbian and trans books are usually given much less money in book deals. That pay disparity kills a lot of motivation and even the ability to write a sapphic or trans story,” he said.
As mentioned before, queer YA makes up 1% of all YA published. Less than 1% of that 1% made it into a top-10 slot of the NYT Bestseller list across 2020-22.
Take that 1%, and that less than 1% of that 1%, and suppress it in a school library. Take that one book out of every hundred with a gay main character off the dusty shelves in a southern school district. Take that one queer story and hide it in a box in a backroom. Take that token piece of representation in an already-conservative town and demolish it.
What happens, then, to the 25% of adolescents who identified with that destroyed piece of representation? What happens to their story? What value does that teach them to assign to their own lives?
“The election has made it clear where the world stands,” our YA author-in-residence said. “It’s scary. Initially, I didn’t know how to write, or what to write. But I feel that I owe it to the world, and literature, to write queerly, because YA did so much for me even though my story didn’t exactly exist in it, and I want those stories to exist now.”
The idea of expanded censorship might ignite fear in queer authors and readers, and the claims of a loud minority might threaten to infect the wider population, but the fight for equal representation in media cannot halt. The focus must turn onto the queer teenagers who need resources and how we can help them defy the bounds that have been forced upon them.
“At this point, if you get a book out there, you might save a kid. And that’s the most important thing right now.”
So just think about it. Look at the data and really consider what each entry means, what each story could do. Hold it close.
And then keep fighting.
Resources
I made bookmarks to summarize 2020 and 2021 data. Feel free to do some guerrilla activism and pop them between some pages in your local bookstore’s YA section, or give them to your friends. They’ve got an edgy quote on the back for added excitement, and a bunch of book recs:
And some more formal resources, outside of the data:
LGBTQ+ crisis support through the Trevor Project
Really fantastic book ban coverage from BU’s alumni magazine, Bostonia
Fruitslice Queer Quarterly, for more gay voices on your shelf
Lillian Heckler Portfolio 
