The You Know Who Girls: Freshman Year is about 14 year old Abbey who is entering her freshman year of high school.  But unlike her best friend Kate, she’s not attracted to the guys, she instead finds herself crushing hard on the girl at Hot Dog on a Stick chick. As she gets further incorporated into the school, she’s got to sort out her feelings about individual girls and her own sexuality and face coming out to her mom and straight as an arrow best friend.

So you’re probably thinking to yourself, “why would an almost 30 year old straight man be interested in a book about a teenage lesbian?” and that would be a great question. But the truth is that gay, straight, boy, or girl, we all face a universal uncertainty as to who we are at that time in our lives.  It’s part of normal development and everyone can relate to it.  Of course those going through it, the target audience for this book, don’t know that it’s normal and are asking a lot of questions with not a lot of places to really turn.  Which is one of the first points I have about why I enjoyed The You Know Who Girls so much. It was written in a way that even those not questioning their sexuality, but any teenager, really can relate to. Abbey isn’t just defined by her sexuality, she’s much more and her worries are pretty typical of anyone her age whose trying to figure out themselves and how they fit into this new high school world.

Another thing I liked that goes along with the above is that all of the characters are pretty well fleshed out and really human.  Abbey’s crush is a deeply flawed girl, as many of our crushes turn out to be all too often.  Her role models in her lesbian life aren’t perfect guides as well, their also teenage girls after all.  Going along with this The You Know Who Girls is really well written with excellent descriptions and a great story.  It also doesn’t wallow in melodrama as would be so easy for a book like this to do.  It’s also teen oriented so there’s no graphic sex in case you had fears of that or exploitation.

In conclusion, The You Know Who Girls: Freshman Year is an excellent book that’s packed with a realism and positive message that I’d buy for any young girl in my life. It’s available now and I suggest picking it up.