Julian Is a Mermaid

by Jessica Love

Joy in full, unapologetic color.

For you if

you want your kid to grow up knowing that being exactly who you are is the most magnificent thing possible

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Secondhand & sustainable

$18 MSRP
Reference price shown. Other editions may be available.

A watercolor daydream of self-expression and acceptance, Julian Is a Mermaid celebrates the beauty of being exactly who you are. It’s tender, affirming, and quietly revolutionary — proof that the truest kind of bravery is joy.

Where This Book Lives

Themes: identity self-expression

Part of a Reading Journey

queer history

Deviant by Design: The Queer Arc from Persecution to Liberation

From government persecution to liberation — the full arc of queer life in four essential books.

8 books • SEE THROUGH IT → MAKE SOMETHING BETTER

Explore →

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A Room with a View(1985)

dir. James Ivory

Choosing passion over propriety.

A young Edwardian Englishwoman, kissed once in the Florentine hills by an unsuitable free spirit, returns home to a proper engagement — and finds she can't stop wrestling with what she actually wants. Adapted from E.M. Forster's novel.

Why it’s here: Punk in its gentle insistence that following desire is itself a political act against Edwardian repression. Pedagogical in showing how class convention polices romantic choice as much as any law does.

Letterboxd ↗

Same pattern, different era

Different time, different place. The same thing keeps happening.

Sister Outsider

Audre Lorde