Kids Comics Pitchfest Showcase

Cramming

Raina Telgemeier’s SMILE meets Judy Blume’s DEENIE in this semi-autobiographical graphic novel about an overachieving girl whose life is thrown off-center when she has to wear a scoliosis back brace.

When Ari discovers she has to wear a scoliosis back brace for nine months, her eighth-grade plans start to crack. Concentrating in school, kicking a soccer ball, and "fitting in" feel like a distant memory. After she meets Sky, her nonbinary soccer teammate struggling with identity pressures of their own, Ari starts to notice the ways she’s been trying to cram into the ideal student, athlete, and daughter mold...the same mold Sky's been trying to break out of. With a little help from Sky, Ari must learn how to embrace her true authentic self.

My Why:

Scoliosis has had a huge impact on my family. Because of scoliosis, I can no longer run, my mother is on disability leave from her job, and my aunt has emotional scars from being bullied severely for wearing a back brace. Sometimes, I wonder if a book like this had existed when my family members were younger, could it have encouraged them to get a scoliosis exam sooner or even helped them when they were wearing a back brace?

I hope this book brings more awareness to scoliosis and the importance of getting tested for it early. I’ve never seen a character wear a scoliosis brace before so it was important to me to make this a graphic novel so others could visually see what a brace looks like and get insight into what it’s like to wear one.