We see a lot of Eliza’s family in this book and witness, through her eyes, her experience as a daughter of Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants. My intention wasn’t really to define what feminism is or isn’t-more than anything else, I wanted the story to be a (hopefully entertaining) starting point for some interesting discussions. So I wanted to explore the topic in a way that makes readers, especially young readers, feel like it’s okay to grapple with that uncertainty and arrive at their own conclusions. Culturally, we’re in a place right now where it’s okay, maybe even expected, to identify as a feminist, but there’s still a lot of mixed messaging about what that entails. What made you want to write about gender inequality and the evolving nuances of feminism?įeminism is such a complicated thing. NHtBL contains multiple great discussions about feminism and what it truly means to be a feminist and how that can differ between activists depending on their privilege. I always knew he’d be the reason she didn’t get to be editor-in-chief (and that she’d like him anyway, in spite of herself), but it wasn’t until I thought of the feminism piece that everything finally clicked.

The characters definitely came first! I feel like I’ve known Eliza and Len a long time-I even had their names picked out from the very beginning-but I spent years trying to find the right story for them. How did this book come to be? Did you craft characters to support the plot you already had in mind, or did you begin with characters that found their way into this school newspaper drama turned situationally coerced feminist rebellion?

When Eliza Quan gets snubbed as editor-in-chief of the school paper for a less qualified but more “likable” male peer, she finds herself caught between leading a feminist reckoning…and falling for the boy she’s asking to step down. How would you pitch Not Here to Be Liked to readers in two sentences or less? Today we’re pleased to welcome Michelle Quach to the WNDB blog to discuss Not Here to Be Liked.

Not Here to Be Liked by Michelle Quach