Becky Albertalli stopped by Velshi to discuss book bans with the MSNBC anchor.
Albertalli is the author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, published in 2015 by Balzer + Bray. The young adult novel, which was longlisted for the National Book Award, follows the title character, a gay teenage boy in Georgia who is at risk of being outed by a schoolmate.
The novel, which was adapted into the 2018 film Love, Simon, has been a frequent target of book banners.
Velshi asked Albertalli about the theme of adolescent loneliness in her novel.
“When it comes to getting in the heads of my teenage characters, I’m definitely tapping into a lot of the feelings that were very present, even defining, for me when I was in middle school, even high school, even college, even adulthood, really,” she said. “There is this kind of distance that you can feel sometimes between the chaos of what’s happening inside your own head and this perception you have of other people who are probably inside their own heads, maybe just as chaotic as you are.”
Velshi noted that music plays a large role in Albertalli’s book.
“For me, it always comes back to the characters,” she said. “Simon…is absolutely someone who, no matter what, would have very strong opinions about music and just in general the media he consumes.…Fleshing out his taste in music was one of the ways that I really got to know him.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
