I have such a great job where, not only do I get to read books before they come out, but I get to ask the author all about how the book came to be! I learned so much through my interview with Rebecca Bendheim, author of When You’re Brave Enough (due out April 7, 2026).
About the Book
Hi Rebecca! I really enjoyed When You’re Brave Enough. This was a true coming-of-age story that addressed many things middle graders are dealing with: religion, sexuality, and friendship. I’m excited to dive in and learn more about how the book came to be. Can you please give us a brief summary of the book?
Thank you so much! When You’re Brave Enough is about introspective thirteen-year-old Lacey, who’s always had the same best friend, loud, super-enthusiastic Grace. When she finds out her family is moving Rhode Island before eighth grade, she hopes to reinvent herself and step into the spotlight on her own, so she’s ecstatic when she gets a lead role in the musical Bye Bye Birdie.
But then Lacey finds out about her new school’s longstanding, student-led tradition: the lead couple always kisses (for real!) in the final performance. Lacey’s role has two love interests, and suddenly she’s under a lot of pressure to decide. But what if she’d rather kiss the girl she has a duet with? As she prepares for her bat mitzvah and Grace plans a visit for the final performance, Lacey grapples with the concept of tradition, which ones are worth continuing, and what her perfect first kiss would look like if she were brave enough to listen to her heart.
Do you feel this book is more of a window, mirror, or both?
My biggest hope is that When You’re Brave Enough can be a mirror for queer kids and teens who are asking similar questions and grappling with similar pressures to Lacey. I read my first queer book when I was twenty, and it completely reframed my view of being a lesbian from worrying it would make my life difficult to seeing that being queer could open me up to true love and a more authentic, creative life.
While I wrote this book for LGBTQ+ kids and teens, I hope that anyone, regardless of identity, can enjoy it and get a window into one experience of a queer teen coming into her own. There are a lot of misconceptions about queer kids right now, and I hope this book shows people that they are, like all kids, working hard to figure out who they are and where they fit into their communities, and that they deserve support, love, agency, and patience as they make their way.
I loved how sexuality was shown as a fluid spectrum and how the protagonist was discovering where she was on it. What do you hope this story contributes to the landscape of LGBTQ+ literature?
I wanted this story to celebrate the importance of taking time to really sit with your inner voice and respect what it tells you. So many of my favorite middle grade books, such as The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead and Scar Like a River by Lisa Graff, are about a character who is hiding a secret from themselves because they’re in middle school, at the height of pressure to conform and be good, probably the hardest place on Earth to admit you are different. Fragments and memories come to the surface, clueing in the reader, but these characters try to push them away until they can’t anymore and must grapple with the truth. I wanted to contribute a lesbian version of this story and highlight Lacey’s coming out to herself as just as important, if not more important, than sharing who she is with the world.
About the Author
Me at Lacey’s age in my Bye Bye Birdie T-shirt. I still have the shirt, but no longer have the purple Uggs.
Do you see your preteen self in Lacey? Or any of the other characters?
Yes! Like Lacey, I was so confused when my friends started talking about crushes, not understanding that the complicated, yearning feelings I had for a girl in my theater group were just that. I felt behind my peers and desperate to have it all figured out.
I also see a lot of my younger self in Grace, since I was loud and silly as a middle schooler. I loved hiding in lockers and jumping out at people, singing terribly in school hallways, and dressing up in weird, mismatched costumes and wigs to walk to CVS with my best friend. There are parts of me in all my characters, and learning to love and understand them helps me do the same with myself.
What’s your connection to school productions? And why did you choose Bye, Bye Birdie?
I LOVE musical theater and was in Bye Bye Birdie twice growing up, once in fourth grade and once in sixth. I chose this show because of its emphasis on conformity and expectations; it’s set in the 1950s and centers around a group of poodle-skirt-clad teenage fangirls who are all obsessed with teen idol Conrad Birdie (AKA Elvis) and one girl, Kim, who is chosen for the “honor” of being Conrad’s last kiss before going to the army and is suddenly thrust into the spotlight. The start of Lacey’s journey mirrors Kim’s, as a new student facing pressure to kiss one of her co-leads onstage. But more importantly, as an author, I have to put my characters through the ringer so they can grow, and I thought this show about many, many girls obsessed with a boy would be the hardest one for Lacey to disrupt by being true to herself.
How did you come up with the idea of a closing night kiss?
During my fourth grade production of Bye Bye Birdie, the eighth graders who played Albert and Rosie actually did kiss in the final performance! I remember being terrified that I’d have to do that too, and what if I had a co-lead I didn’t want to kiss? I never got a lead role, so I thankfully didn’t have to worry about this, but the fear stayed with me and I loved seeing how it played out with Lacey’s story.
I love how this ended—I think it’s a great message for kids. Did you always plan the closing-night kiss ending how it did or did you play with various endings?
I always knew who Lacey’s first kiss would be, but I played with a few different versions of where and when, public or not public. When I thought of the current ending, I knew that was it. It felt so perfectly Lacey-and-_______. No spoilers!
Research/Writing
Tell us a little about your MFA thesis and how it impacted writing this book.
I wrote my critical thesis at Vermont College of Fine Arts on the impact of positive queer representation in middle grade fiction. Through this, I learned that my experience having my first crushes on girls from nine to eleven but not coming out until years later was normal. Most queer and trans kids realize they’re queer or trans by early adolescence, but middle school is also the time when they’re most likely to be inundated with negative messaging about being LGBTQ+. I also learned that a supportive adult or a positive queer role model can have a real impact on improving the mental health of an LGBTQ+ child, so I made sure to add characters who fill both these roles in the book. I wrote the first draft of When You’re Brave Enough in 2020 and kept going through years of revision and rejection by remembering the impact books like these can have if they get into the hands of a kid who needs them.
Are you more of a plotter or pantser?
A plotter! I usually start by coming up with one character or situation, and then I love the brainstorming phase where I get to think of a million ideas of how their story could unfold. In that phase, I often spend more time in the character’s world than in my own life. But as I write my (terrible) first draft, the characters usually decide they want to do something totally different than I had planned, and I have to go back and revise the outline. Still, I like having it there instead of a blank page!
I liked how there was a parallel with Anne Frank and her diary. When in your writing journey did you create the connection to The Diary of Anne Frank?
The Diary of Anne Frank wasn’t part of my first few drafts of the novel, but when I got a copy of it for my sixth grade students, I decided to re-read it. I was shocked to read the same part Lacey is shocked by, where Anne writes about kissing her best friend and being attracted to the women in her art history books. I realized that when I was in middle school, I read a version of Anne’s diary with many passages omitted, including this one. I wished I could have gone back and given my younger self the unedited, unabridged version. Instead, I gave it to Lacey.
What was the most difficult part in writing this book?
The hardest part was making Grace feel like a well-rounded, fully there character from two thousand miles away. Much of my revising focused on putting memories of Grace in places that made sense, adding her visit, and making the emails between Lacey and Grace come alive through video transcripts, photos of flowers, and even songs, which my audiobook narrator actually plays ukulele and sings in the audiobook!
What was something you didn’t expect that was super beneficial in writing/finishing/publishing this book?
I first wrote this novel in verse and changed it to prose for and revise and resubmit request with an editor. That editor, Jessica Anderson, wasn’t able to acquire the book, but I so appreciate her wise idea to take the emotional heart of each poem and build it into a short scene, adding more dialogue, setting description, and physicality for the characters. Now, when I’m struggling with a project, I write the scene as a poem, figure out the emotional heart that way, and then build it into a prose scene.
For Teachers
Are you doing school visits related to this book?
Yes! As a former middle school teacher, I love doing school visits, especially for grades 5-8. I’m doing two main formats right now. One is a presentation about emotional bravery that ends with a chance for students to make a promise to themselves of something they’d like to be emotionally brave enough to do. If they want, they can write it down on this five foot sign!
The other is a writing workshop where students write a poem describing how a certain emotion feels in their body and then use that poem to build out a scene. I also combined these in my most recent visit! My goal during visits is to add enough visuals and opportunities to participate that even the most distractable student (AKA my younger self) is locked in, thinking, and learning. I also love to speak at pride events or to GSAs!
How can we learn more about you?
You can find me on social media @rebeccabendheim or at my website rebeccabendheim.com!
Thank you for your time, Rebecca!
Thank you for these thoughtful questions and for spotlighting When You’re Brave Enough!
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