A tale of four lesbians

By Mike Maillaro

August 3, 2026

My next writer commentary is probably exactly what you want to read from a straight, cis, white, middle-class guy: how I approached writing lesbian characters.

Diversity has always been important to me. I think as many viewpoints as possible should always be represented in the arts, not only in the works published, but in the people who create these works. Stories are so much better when more people get to tell them.

It’s going to sound pretentious AF, but I tried to let my characters just be who they were going to be. And that often surprised me. I never sat down with the intention that "Ethan had two moms" or that Maya and Paige were going to be a couple. To be honest, I felt kind of weird about it at first, because I was pretty sure I wasn’t the right guy to even be writing these characters.

Then again, I have also never been a bestselling novelist, or owned a cat, or worked as a high-powered executive at Netflix.  Part of writing to me is being able to tell all kinds of stories, even ones that aren’t quite mine.

I always tried to approach each character as complete people with their own strengths, flaws, quirks, and dynamics. These characters developed over the various versions of the novel, and as they did, I became less concerned with what category they fit into and more interested in who they actually were.

Maggie & Gwen: Ditching the Cop-Out

I knew pretty early on that Ethan’s dad was abusive and he was raised by a single mother. I also knew that she had a lot of help from her friend, Gwen. In the earliest drafts, I tried to be cute and coy about it.

"Gwen is my mom’s roommate." WINK!

And I genuinely hated myself for doing that.

As Gwen became more of a character, I realized these were unapologetic people. They are not living as "roommates." They are a long-standing, happily married couple who both love their son. Throughout the book, I made a conscious effort that no one would even comment or give a second thought when Ethan talked about his moms. Maybe that isn't quite realistic everywhere, but it's the world I'd like to believe we're moving toward. And since I was writing the book, that's the world it got to be.

Maya & Paige: Navigating Maya

A big area of concern to me was trying to get Paige and Maya’s relationship right. When I wrote the two of them flirting together in their first scene, I knew immediately who they were to each other: a committed monogamous couple.

Maya worried me for a while. She was completely devoted to Paige, but she also had an enormous crush on Ethan Blackwood. I kept wondering whether readers would think I was trying to say something bigger about bisexuality or lesbian relationships. But I wasn’t. I was writing Maya.

Is Maya fickle and flighty? Yes. Is Maya looking for a man to save her? Nope, Maya is just someone up for any and all experiences as long as they give her a new story to tell. This isn’t because Maya is a lesbian, it’s because Maya is Maya. She’s playful. She's impulsive. She's also completely devoted to Paige, while simultaneously swooning over an author she can’t possibly connect with.

Once I started to think about her that way, it became much more comfortable for me to write her. As I said before, she is a collection of her own strengths, flaws, quirks, and dynamics. Actually, Maya is sort of my favorite character in the book. I have written so many epilogue scenes on what Maya does after the book is over because I just find her so fun to write for. She’s Ethan, but with even less of a filter.

The Takeaway

As I said when I started writing this: I'm a straight guy. There are absolutely limits to my lived experience, and I tried to approach these characters with a lot of humility. But I also know that no one wants to spend their entire existence being reduced to one adjective. So I tried to write them the same way I wanted to write everyone else: as complete people with histories, flaws, relationships, hobbies, careers, bad jokes, and favorite songs.

I spent a lot of time worrying about getting these characters "right." Eventually, I realized the best thing I could do was stop thinking about writing lesbians and start thinking about writing Maggie, Gwen, Maya, and Paige.

Whether I succeeded is ultimately up to the reader. But if someone finishes “The Story of You” thinking less about "the lesbian couple" or "the gay moms" and more about Maggie, Gwen, Maya, and Paige as people, then I think I probably got closer than I ever expected.