You describe this whole lesbian culture there at your school, this little thriving dyke community and I thought, wow, I wish my high school was like that! Have you heard from a lot of queer teenagers? What do they say?
Yeah. Most of them are just wishing they could have gone there too.
What was it like coming out for you?
It was a nonissue. It was really ideal. Not that it was perfect. There’s always going to be homophobia. There’s always going to be a sense of being different and figuring out who else is like you. But in terms of any societal pressure or stigma that really wasn’t there at all. It was never an issue with any teachers or parents or even other kids at school… Berkeley High was a very diverse school. I’m sure being a gay girl was probably easier than being a gay boy. I’m sure some kids got beat up for appearing gay even if they weren’t.
What kinds of things do you hear from queer teenagers?
I hear from a lot that it’s really helped them. I have this one girl who used it to show to her mom to come out and it helped her mom understand. She said it had a huge affect on her life.
In Potential, you decide that you have to lose your virginity before you turn 17 and you decide that the only way you’re going to do this is to have sex with a boy. Even though you had already had sex with a girl. At your current age (29) if you were to give advice to your 16 year old self now, what would you say to yourself?
I’m really okay in the end at how it turned out. I don’t really have any regrets about it because I think I would have always been curious. Even though I was really attracted to my girlfriend and was really happy to be in a relationship with her, I think I would have always been curious about what sex with a boy was like and I think I would have done it eventually, so I might as well have done it in this classic virginity losing escapade. But if I had a teenage gay girl cousin who came to me with that question, I would definitely tell her you do not need to be in any rush to have sex with a boy.
If you have sex with a girl it can count as losing your virginity.
I think it just becomes this becomes an issue for teenagers because of the societal focus the concept of virginity. Because you want to make sure that you’ve fulfilled that. But once you’ve past that, it kind of becomes a non-issue.
How did you come to write for the L Word?
I came to write for the L Word because I had written a screen adaptation for my book Potential and through that was working with an entertainment lawyer. I told her I really wanted to write for The L Word. She also represents Rose Troche, a producer on the show. So, she gave Rose my screenplay and she showed it to Ilene and they both really loved it. I met with them and they hired me.
Tell me about your movie, what’s up with that?
That’s moving along. I’m working with Rose as the director of that. Right now we’re focusing on casting. Hopefully it will come together soon, but you never really know with movies.
Will parts of it have comic sequences?
Yeah. There will be animation that is intermingled when you’re seeing things through Ariel’s eyes or when she’s drawing. It’s like it was for me living that year, I would often see experiences I had flash through my head like a comic book. That’s the way that I translated things that happened to me and I wanted to express that in the movie.
Why did you pick Potential as the one to make a movie of?
It’s the only one that has the classic movie arc. We made the screenplay different from the book, much more plot driven with a beginning, middle and end. The other books are very episodic and suited maybe more for TV, but Potential really did feel to me like a movie.
What happened after you finished high school and before you wrote for The L Word? Did you go off to college?
I did. I took a year off. When I graduated high school, I moved to New York and I spent the year writing
Likewise. I also had to finish inking Potential. After that I went to Columbia. My major was English. Then I graduated and right when I graduated, I got the deal with Killer Films to write the screenplay for Potential. I also taught art & comics at afterschool program for middle school kids and taught a graphic novel workshop at the New School for college students. Now I live in LA.
What else do you have going on?
I’m working on a few things. One of them is my best friend wrote a memoir about driving a taxicab in New York and she and I are adapting that into a screenplay.
Any regrets about any of the stuff you’ve put out there?
No regrets.
