Portrait Of: Gabby Rivera

Published: Jan. 12, 2021, 5:19 p.m.

When Gabby Rivera wrote her coming-of-age novel \u201cJuliet Takes a Breath\u201d in 2016, she didn't know that it would get her attention from an unusual place: Marvel Comics. They asked her to write for America Chavez, their first queer Latina superhero. Gabby said yes. But as she was writing for their superhero, she found herself swept up in #comicsgate, an online harassment campaign against the comic book industry\u2019s efforts to include more women, people of color and LGBTQ characters. In this "Portrait Of," Maria sits talked to Gabby about her beginnings as a writer, her difficult experience with #comicsgate and about returning to comic book writing.