I once wrote a short story for a school assignment and received the feedback: “it’s just too confusing to read a non-binary main character”. There’s a parallel universe where I didn’t just roll over and change their gender. Instead, I threw these books at my teacher, insisted that I just wasn’t a good enough writer yet, and demanded that a creative writing class teach me how to better integrate diverse characters rather than force me to sand down their edges to fit into prescriptive boxes.