This post is speaking from my own lived experience and by no means representative for the entirety of the bisexual millennial community. For the purpose of this post “the 90s” also includes the early 2000s. 

This post discusses or references: Homophobia, biphobia, misogyny, diet culture

Author note: This post was updated on April 30, 2025 to include current book information.

I write bisexual main characters because I was a teen in the 1990s.

I write bisexual main characters for the readers who relate to those 13 words. 

I write bisexual main characters so more people can see themselves in the books they read, but that’s an oversimplification that fails to encompass the years of personal reflection, growth, and therapy that was necessary to even get here.

When Queer was a Slur

The 1990s wasn’t the worst decade for the queer community (there are queer history scholars better suited to talk about that). But it wasn’t a friendly decade either. 

The 90s was a time of progress, but only in comparison to the decades that came before it. “Queer” was still a slur. It’s a word that’s been reclaimed by the community because it’s inclusive and all encompassing. It’s so loaded with negative history, however,  it can be challenging for some folks to use it 20+ years later.

The number of queer characters in popular TV shows and movies increased but they were also stereotyped or straightened to be palatable to a wide audience.

Bisexual representation was virtually nonexistent. But on those rare occasions we got it, bisexual characters were the ones that viewers weren’t suppose to root for or relate to. 

There are many others, but let’s take Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions (1999) for example. She was a manipulative, coke-addicted, villain screwing her step brother. My 16-year-old self wanted to see herself as Buffy Summers not Kathryn Merteuil (OK also maybe a little bit of Kathryn Merteuil).

Is Your Eyeliner Too Slutty and Other Reasons Why The Quarterback Hasn’t Asked you to Homecoming 

Teen magazines ruled the 90s. And they boasted cover stories like:

(Author’s note:  I did a search to find these, but I picked issues that I absolutely remember buying or receiving with my subscription.) 

These days, Teen Vogue is doing better journalism than 90 percent of traditional news media (looking at you, New York Times), but the February 2005 cover gave us a thrilling piece promising readers Flirty Valentine’s Day Looks your Date will Fall For.

Sidenote:  This issue also had a cover story titled, From Mary-Kate to Beyonce: Who’s Got the Body You Want? And I don’t know if any other headline sums up the millennial experience quite like that one.

Girls Must Love Boys was a blunt cultural message. And when you are legitimately attracted to men this message doesn’t feel wrong. It’s easy to channel all of your focus into one limb of your sexuality because that attraction feels natural.

And it is.

But it’s only part of the whole.

The Cool Girl with Internalized Misogyny

Nineties feminism was wild because it was anything but feminist. It was misogyny dressed up in a babydoll tank and low rise wide-leg jeans. Rather than be supportive of each other, women—particularly white women—were socialized to be in competition with other women at all times. 

Now I, as a self-proclaimed tomboy, had a rough time with anything that was hyper feminine and was particularly susceptible to this messaging.

I’m pretty sure the youths call them pick me girls now. I was, and continue to be, very secure in my gender identity as a girl, but I wasn’t one of those girls. I was a cool girl. The “just gets along better with men,” girl.

It’s really hard to let yourself admit or embrace your attraction to a gender that you’re constantly being taught to hate. I was able to understand my sexuality only after I worked through all of the internalized misogyny.

The Mummy Secretly Awakens the Bisexuals

It’s a running joke among bisexual millennials that The Mummy was their bisexual awakening. And while it wasn’t mine, I definitely believe others when they say it. 

But it’s not a conversation that many of us were having publicly in 1999 when the oldest millennials were barely old enough to buy cigarettes and vote. 

We weren’t having it in AOL chat rooms or at the mall on Friday nights. Any awakenings—or inklings or tingles—were kept to ourselves and only said out loud with a wink as we talked about our “girl crush.”

Your questions, your curiosities, and your confused feelings are stuffed away because there’s no Google, TikTok, or YouTube to discreetly seek information. You don’t relate to the sapphic characters depicted on screen and the books at the library were just as bad if not worse. 

Becoming Visible 

When I write a book with a bisexual couple, I’m adding two more bisexual characters to the world. Two more authentically represented bisexual characters are visible. Two more bisexual characters that didn’t exist when I was a teen in the 90s. 

I write characters who get to be bi. They get to live as their authentic selves without the forces of the outside world pushing them towards only one facet of their attraction. They’re secure in their sexuality and get to follow their attraction to whomever it leads. 

I write bisexual heroines falling in lust and love with bisexual heroes, a pairing that in 2024 The Year of Our Goddess Aubrey Plaza is so often dismissed as “straight” that I will continue writing these aggressively bisexual MF couples out of pure spite.

And yes, I do intend on writing sapphic couples as well. I plan on having a long author career and publishings plenty of books starring aggressively bisexual women who are passionately in love with each other.

I don’t write bisexual characters for our current generation of bisexual teens. They exist in a much different world. One that’s progressing so quickly that the patriarchy is trying to suppress it with drastic measures. 

I write books for the bisexual adults in their lives.

Maybe they know who they are now. Maybe they’re finally living as their authentic selves. Or maybe they’re still working through it. 

It’s finally time we feel seen. And I want to be part of that.

The Bisexual Books

Radio Romance and Let it Rain are cozy and spicy contemporary romance novellas available in paperback, digital, and Kobo Plus.

Roots in Ink is a contemporary fantasy romance available in paperback, digital, and Kobo Plus.