Gabby Rivera is an American writer and storyteller. She is the author of the 2016

young adult novel Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

''Juliet Takes a Breath'', and wrote the 2017–2018

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

''America'', about

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

America Chavez America Chavez is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta, Chavez was the second character to use the moniker Miss America, after Madeline Joyce. Chavez first appeared in ' ...

. Her work often addresses issues of identity and representation for

people of color The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...

and the

queer community The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and soci ...

, within American popular culture.

Early life and education

Gabby Rivera was born to Martha and Charles Rivera. Rivera grew up in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

borough of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, she is of Puerto Rican descent and grew up in a religious household of

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

evangelicalism. An early love of reading and writing came from her mother, a kindergarten teacher. Rivera attended an

all-girls Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...

private school in White Plains, New York. Gabby Rivera attended

Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a private liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland. It was chartered in 1885 by a conference in Baltimore led by namesake John F. Goucher and local leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church.https://archive.org/details/h ...

Towson Towson () is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Baltim ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, graduating in 2004.

Career

Gabby Rivera started her career and love for literature at the age of 17 by attending a local cafe for poetry nights. Starting her career in performance poetry, Rivera grew inspired by stories written by black, brown and queer authors. Rivera is an editor at

Autostraddle Autostraddle is an independently owned online magazine and social network for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women ( cis and trans), as well as non-binary people and trans people of all genders. The website is a "politically progressive queer femin ...

, an

online magazine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer magaz ...

for, about, and written by

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

IA+ women,

non-binary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

people and sometimes

trans men A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that incl ...

. Rivera has also written poems and

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

. She is an activist and youth mentor through her work as the youth programs manager at

GLSEN GLSEN (pronounced ''glisten''; formerly the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) is an American education organization working to end discrimination, harassment, and bullying based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expres ...

''Juliet Takes a Breath'' (2016)

''Juliet Takes a Breath'' (2016) is a semi-autobiographical, fictional

coming-of-age novel In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age), in which character change is imp ...

about a

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

Latina woman dealing with her identity. In this story, Juliet Milagros Palante is attending college in Baltimore and moves to Portland, Oregon for the summer to intern under Harlowe Brisbane, a white feminist writer and author of, "Raging Flower: Empowering Your Pussy by Empowering Your Mind". Juliet realizes there is a difference in

theoretical definition A theoretical definition defines a term in an academic discipline, functioning as a proposal to see a phenomenon in a certain way. A theoretical definition is a proposed way of thinking about potentially related events. Theoretical definitions cont ...

between Harlowe's

white feminism White feminism is a term used to describe expressions of feminism which are perceived as focusing on white women while failing to address distinct forms of oppression faced by ethnic minority The term 'minority group' has different usages de ...

and her own, because she cannot fully identify because she is someone of a different race, culture, and sexual orientation. Juliet is learning to trust her own power and seeks to fill the gap between the feminist community and her

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

culture, in the creation of her own identity. This narrative story addresses issues of representation and multigenerational cultural differences.

Miss America (America Chavez) series

Miss America is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

and Marvel's first

Latin-American Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizenship, citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas a ...

LGBTQ character to star in an ongoing series. From March 2017 to April 2018, Gabby Rivera authored the series, until it was cancelled by Marvel publishing.

B.B. Free series

B.B. Free is a comic book series based on a short story written by Rivera titled ''IMBALANCE'', the story centers around a 15 year old navigating a post-climate change world with a plague, where mother nature kills greed.

Personal life

Rivera is openly gay.

Publications

* * *

References

External links

Gabby Rivera's speakers profile
on

Ted.com TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

Gabby Rivera's contributors profile
on

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivera, Gabby Writers from the Bronx Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Goucher College alumni Hispanic and Latino American novelists Hispanic and Latino American poets Hispanic and Latino American short story writers Hispanic and Latino American autobiographers American autobiographers Women autobiographers 21st-century American women writers American magazine editors Women magazine editors American women short story writers American women poets 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American poets Marvel Comics writers American lesbian writers LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT Hispanic and Latino American people American LGBT novelists American LGBT poets LGBT comics creators