Snapdragon

The latter half of Part 1 largely focuses on how Jacks, Lulu, and Snap navigate their identities. Jacks separated from the love of her life, Jessie, because she didn’t want to become like her own parents. Lulu embraces her trans identity and confronts bullies who deadname her on the playground. Unlike Lulu, who knows who she is and what she identifies as, Snap has more trouble understanding her identity, since she “feels” like a girl but doesn’t “act” like one.

Though Jacks initially appears unaffected by the judgement the town has about her and the rumors she eats roadkill, these pages reveal that she does feel The Social Effect of Being Perceived As Different. She tells Jessie, “I’m afraid I’ll turn out like my parents […] they thought they’d be great parents…bet they never thought they’d throw out their own kid” (99-100). Jacks describes how her parents’ love was conditional: They loved her until she grew up into someone whose identity they did not accept. Jacks is a lesbian who presents masculine and is often perceived as male. Since she doesn’t perform magic until after meeting Jessie, it’s likely her parents kicked her out for her sexuality. A disproportionate number LGBTQ+ youth are unhoused due to being ostracized by their families after coming out. Of the roughly 1.6 million unhoused youth in the United States, 40% identify under LGBTQ+ umbrella, as opposed to 7% of the housed youth population (“The Cost of Coming Out: LGBT Youth Homelessness.” Lesley University). One study surveyed more than 350 organizations across the country that provide resources to LGBTQ+ unhoused youths and found that 68% of the youths at these facilities “experienced family rejection” after coming out (“The Cost of Coming Out”), like Jacks did.

While Jacks was not explicitly unhoused, she is part of the large group of LGBTQ+ youths who are rejected by their families and kicked out of their homes; the spaces they are supposed to be able to rely on for comfort and protection. She carries the trauma of being rejected by the two people, her parents, who vowed to love her unconditionally, but withdrew that love because Jacks didn’t fit into their idea of normativity. Jacks does not want to pass that trauma onto another generation, like it was passed onto her. The only way she sees to break this cycle is to not have a family.

Jacks doesn’t not want a family because she doesn’t like kids or doesn’t want to have children with Jessie: She doesn’t want to replicate the cruelty of her parents, and not having children is the only way she sees to entirely avert that possibility. She is won over by Snap despite herself, saying if she and Jessie had “stayed together you wouldn’t exist. And that’d be a shame” (103). Though Jacks is flustered by admitting this and changes the subject, it betrays her growing fondness for Snap.

While the graphic novel has a variety of LGBTQ+ characters with a spectrum of gender identities and presentation, Lulu is the only trans character. In reality, trans and gender non-conforming youth are at increased risk of family ostracization, becoming unhoused, experiencing domestic violence, and dying by suicide (Jenco, Melissa. “Study: Transgender Teens at Higher Risk of Violence, Suicide Attempts.” American Academy of Pediatrics, 24 Jan. 2019). It can be dangerous for trans youth to present as their true gender—if they wish to—due to an unsafe surrounding social climate. Lulu’s social climate is welcoming and non-judgmental, apart from a small group of bullies at school who the text clearly positions as being in the wrong. Before Snap knows Lulu is a trans girl, she knows she likes “girly-girl” things like earrings and nail polish. When trading Lulu for her brothers’ hand-me-down shirt with embroidered dragons, Snap offers Lulu one of Violet’s unwanted skirts. Snap does not push Lulu to come out before she is ready, but she offers support and validation as Lulu moves toward socially transitioning.

Illustrations on page 82 show Lulu, Snap, and G.B. having a dance party in their new clothes, living joyfully as their authentic selves. When Violet gets home, an illustration on page 83 shows Lulu ducking behind Snap. Her posture is closed off and unsure, shoulders slouched. For Violet, Lulu wearing the skirt is a non-issue. She offers to interface with Lulu’s parents if they are mad that she has a skirt, then she simply moves on to discussing dinner. Lulu is illustrated on page 84 blushing and smiling in response. Violet hasn’t made a big deal of the way Lulu presents, and accepts it without further comment and without treating Lulu any differently. Violet thus contrasts with Jacks’s parents and demonstrates The Strength of Found Family: family who is not related to you by biology but provides bonds of familial support and community by choice.

Violet and Snap also contrast with the bullies who deadname Lulu and say she “caught freak” from Snap. Lulu stands up for herself, telling the bully that her name is Lulu and by defending Snap. This contrasts Lulu’s first appearance in the graphic novel, where she tried to ask Snap if she was okay after the bully pushed Snap into the dead possum but didn’t stand up for Snap publicly. As Lulu and Snap become friends and navigate their own identities, they also stand up for each other against people who ostracize or judge them.

Snap headbutts a bully who is about to make a transphobic comment toward Lulu. The headbutting, in addition to Snap’s other attributes like being interested in skeletons, dragons, scary movies, or baggy clothes, make her think she doesn’t “act” like a girl. Lulu is a girl who acts like a girl and likes “girly-girl” things. Snap, on the other hand, doesn’t know what to make of her identity. She “wondered if maybe [she] really was a boy, like Lulu’s a girl” (110), but decides she feels like a girl even though she doesn’t “act right.” Social expectations about the attitudes and behaviors of young girls leads Snap to feel like an outsider. Violet tries to emphasize that Snap does act right, because she defends herself and Lulu from a bully. Though Violet is nothing but supportive and does not perpetuate traditional gender norms or judge Snap for not adhering to them, Snap continues to wonder why she is different from her peers.