Mm-hmm.

So I was hoping that that would be, um, the right way to go about it.

Was it correct? I don't know.

In hindsight, I would've had a lot of sensitivity readers.

At the time, it was not a thing.

And, um, then as I kept writing, readers would write me and they're like, "Oh, can you put a person that is Puerto Rican in this? Can you put a woman with anxiety in this?" And I had like a deaf heroine, I had a fat heroine, I had, um, all, all kinds of heroines, and, um, the only thing that I heard from readers was, "This is great.

Can you make one that looks like me or has this problem that I have?" And I was like, you know, people just wanna be seen in a story, and I love that.

Mm-hmm.