Maia Kobabe Talk

  

  10/30/22

Dominic Miller

  Sonya Fix

   

Maia Kobabe's Talk

      I found Maia Kobabe’s talk to be very interesting, as ey discussed eir struggles to come out as non-binary, and decided to create gender queer comics and start releasing them. Maia also discusses the backlash ey faced, becoming the most challenged author in America. Maia also took the viewers through the creation process of ‘Gender Queer’. Students also got the opportunity to ask various questions, one of them was “ How do you know what to leave in and out of the book? “ Maia responded, "I went back and read personal diaries from age eleven all the way up to twenty-five and made bullet points of memories that were personal, never to be seen and scary.” Maia would then take that list and extract what's relevant. The first comics of ‘Gender Queer’ were originally in black and white. After pitching the book and getting rejected Maia was told to expand it with color and bigger pages which was later on made with the help from eir sister Phoebe. Maia said that a month after the release eir sister Phoebe came out as non-binary while In the is book is referred to using she/her pronouns. During the first two years after the book was published there wasn't backlash, two years later in the fall of 2021, Maia Kobabe became the most challenged author in America. This book writing journey of Maia’s has been something to appreciate, one thing that resonates with me is the advice given to students that pertains to every artist and that's to keep making work and continuing to pursue things that feel valuable even if you aren’t sure. And that's something I’ve learned as an artist, is to remember that what you're creating is for you, not everyone else. Everyone should be making artwork that they want to create despite whatever the public's opinion is or the controversy that could erupt from your creation. That's the beautiful thing about art we all possess, freedom of expression.