Our editor-in-chief shares a heartfelt letter ahead of the publication of What A Girl Wants
BY ROXY BOURDILLON
I want to start by saying thank you to you, our treasured DIVA reader. Thank you for supporting this gutsy, independent sapphic magazine and keeping it going for over 30 years (for maths fans, that’s more than three decades of dykes – hurrah!). Thank you for getting behind inclusive journalism and valuing queer voices in a world that increasingly feels like it does not. And then another thank you, a special one from me. Thank you for time and time again showing me the power of sharing stories. Specifically, the life-affirming, even life-changing, power of sharing our stories.
You know the kind of stories I mean. The type of stories we still don’t hear enough of. The type of stories we never heard when we were growing up. How different our lives might have been if we had. Personal stories. Idiosyncratic stories. Queer stories.
Lately I’ve been reflecting on the many joys of working at DIVA and being so embedded in the community. Having in-depth discussions with fascinating women and queer people, like the ones featured in our magazine and website, is undoubtedly one. But do you want to know the biggest thrill for me? It’s when I hear from readers whose lives have been touched, moved, made better somehow by the stories we share in our pages. It’s when one of you tells me how these unapologetically queer stories have made you feel comforted, entertained and, crucially, less alone.
This lesson you have taught me is part of the reason why I decided, after years of sharing other people’s stories, to finally share my own. My memoir, What A Girl Wants: A (True) Story Of Sexuality And Self-discovery, is an honest and hopefully hilarious account of what it was actually like for me growing up as a woman, who happens to really, really love women, in a world that frequently made me feel terrible about both of those things.
It takes you on a wild, often humiliating, sometimes painful but ultimately empowering ride, and reveals how I went from being a closeted, shame-drenched 13-year-old to becoming the out and proud 30-something editor of the world’s leading magazine for sapphics. It tackles deeply personal topics – body image demons, mental health, harassment, heartbreak and profound grief – and the larger, pressing issues facing our whole community too. It is my humble attempt to reach out and start a conversation, to say, “Hi there, this is how life really feels for me. Does any of this resonate? How does it feel for you?”
I sincerely hope you enjoy it, not least because you helped inspire me to write it. And let’s keep sharing queer stories and championing queer voices, because the truth is, in the world we are living in today, they have never been more vital.
What A Girl Wants: A (True) Story Of Sexuality And Self-discovery is published by Bluebird, Pan Macmillan on 17 April and available to pre-order now via this link.
DIVA magazine celebrates 31 years in print in 2025. If you like what we do, then get behind LGBTQIA media and keep us going for another generation. Your support is invaluable.
