Acknowledgments

Gurl. This book took a lot out of me, and so I have a lot of people to thank for just keeping me alive and schticking. Thanks, first, to my second mom, Lauren. To my forever sister Krista. To my friend-family Gigi, Jenn, Paris, Jessica, and the kids from the bleachers at PHS; to my ride-or-dies Andres, Alby, and Cat; to my main gays Leon, Dane, Caleb, Julian, Brandon, Jeff, Liz, even Paul (thanks for the advice early on); to Marcos and his parents, Eloise and Larry; special shout-out to Ben and Chris for housing me in one of my many times of need; to Alec and Brooks and their house in Ptown, where I’ve escaped to write and/or catch my breath; to Jon and Bridgit; to Kelly, who offered me a place to stay in Ptown literally hours after we met; to Debby and Miguel for making LA bearable; to my sister Mac; to my brother and daddi Zac; to Gurlshine; to Leigh and Raisler; to Peter; to the FashionIndie/Lookbooks crew—including Ryan, Brad, Sam, Manny, and Jenn—for taking a chance on me and giving me my first writing job; to the Out crew—including Aaron, Jason, Matt, and Greg—for making my teenage dream come true with a place on the masthead of the formative magazine of my gay youth; to my wonderful teachers over the years, including, but not limited to, Ms. Howard, Mrs. DiMaso, Ms. Ricketts, Mr. Zinsley, Mr. Daniels, Mrs. Nichols, and Ms. Glozier; to Ms. Kenney and Isis; to my nephew, Wayne; to my editor Emi; to Amber, who helped me shape this book in the early stages; to Phoebe and the entire Tiny Rep fam for believing in me and this book; to my agent Robert for asking the question I’d been waiting for my entire life: “Do you have a book in you?”; to Diana Ross, just ’cause; to anyone I’ve forgotten who’s helped me, acknowledged me, made me feel seen, or loved. Just…fucking thanks.