Wear Your Heart Out is a deeply personal story that would not be possible without the love and support of friends and family. While I created this story and continue to work on it mostly for myself, for it to touch one or two lives would be more than enough as reward for the passion I pour into it.
To everyone who has offered me encouragement or provided help and feedback, my deepest thanks. For everyone who has shared their personal stories with me and taken the time to help me understand your own experience, you are an inspiration I hope to honor in this story and hope to show my gratitude.
We are all imperfect beings striving for better, but we each deserve to be represented, to find joy, and to love with our hearts on full blast.
It’s the start of his senior year and Alex is one of the most popular guys at school. Despite excelling in both academics and sports, Alex fears a big secret he’s been keeping could threaten to upend his social status and jeopardize all his friendships. Will Alex be able to stay calm and keep things "operating normally," or will he slip up and reveal the truth he’s been hiding?
Wear Your Heart Out tells a series of parallel storylines in a non-linear fashion and follows a diverse cast of characters going through their final years in high school. Each chapter is told from the perspectives of characters encountered in and around Alex’s life to highlight how we each experience the same circumstances in vastly different ways. At its core, this coming-of-age story is about hope, optimism, and love, but still must address some of the hardships faced by each character to give buoyancy to their perseverance. The story is about representation and features several LGBTQ+ characters and themes.