By Alicia Vane
Alicia,
I want to be tender with you, but I know how that makes your skin crawl. So instead, let me grip your arm firmly and say:
Your intensity is not a bad thing. You are not too much. Do not minimize yourself.
Your sensitivity is not a weakness. You are not too soft. Do not calcify yourself.
Your queerness is not a phase. You are not too fickle. Do not restrain yourself.
One day you will come to love and protect these things fiercely. But, of course, that will take time. Perhaps too much time. Which is why I want to be tender with you and say:
Be gentle with yourself.
Love,
Alicia
Alicia Vane (she/her) works with books, writes books, consumes books, lives in books. Or rather, she lives in England, where she is writing a novel about a cult of strong women with dark secrets.