Being queer in a family that isn't the most excepting of people apart of the LGBTQ+ community isn't always the easiest. I know that my mother and stepfather won't really care if I'm gay or anything, but the way they talk about certain people apart the LGBTQ+ community isn't the most refreshing or comforting. Sometimes I feel like I've heard more slurs against queers from my stepfather more than I have other gay people. What also doesn't help is the fact that I'm a part of the asexual umbrella. I told my mother about it, she thought it was weird and believes sex is important for a relationship. I would disagree. My whole family thinks sex is crucial for a relationship, I personally don't understand why. The best part of all of this is the fact that I know they know I am queer; they don't know what flavor of gay I am, but they know I like women. When I was a freshman in high school, I went by the names SkyeAnne (my birth name) and Oliver (a name that I associated with at the time). I was exploring my gender identity, trying to figure out who I was, in a sense. My brother found out, told my mother about that. She wasn't the most pleased with it. I don't go by the name Oliver anymore. I do know that I will forever have that part of me and I am not ashamed for it. I figured out my gender identity, which is amazing. But in all honestly, I haven't fully figured out my sexual identity fully. As I mentioned before, I identify under the asexual umbrella, but I still do feel romantic attraction. I never fully figured out if I like men; I know I love women and am attracted to them, but men on the other hand... Not so much. I am pretty sure most of my struggles with being in the LGBTQ+ community is trying to figure out what I am. I say that because I never really had a homophobic interaction with someone where they were being homophobic to me. With the figuring out sexuality part, I've had mental breakdowns over it and felt a little silly for it because to me, I thought figuring it out was easy. It isn't. So now I just focus on women and non-males. That's much easier. Queer awareness and mental health awareness is very important to me. I enjoy books about both, mainly mental health. If a book has both of those combined, I'm practically in heaven. I wanted to be an author since I was in the second grade, I still would love to peruse that career path and want to bring more awareness for mental health by writing and even learning about it. Bringing awareness to those who are queer and/or have mental health struggles is so important to me.