I have the same choices over my life and body that I would want for every single person on earth. I’m not trying to make a statement about what a wom… - Juno Dawson

The publishing world tends to focus more on the “young”, less on the “adult”. But I spend lots of time with teenagers and they’re truly the broadband generation. They’ve been online all their lives and seen things that would make milk curdle: beheadings, graphic violence, hardcore porn. Shielding them is never going to work. What makes this book YA is that it tackles issues in a non-judgmental way. We know these things exist, so let’s talk about them…

Ever since my first novel, people have had quite a snippy vibe about YA, and it’s almost like: ‘Do you think one day you’ll write a real book?’…

I think there are a lot of gay men out there who are gay men as a consolation prize because they couldn't be women. That was certainly true of me.