The Power of Queer and Trans of Color Storytelling: An Interview With Dr. Isabel Millán

ABSTRACT In this interview, Dr. Isabel Millán describes her approach to creating and researching Queer and Trans of Color (QTOC) children's literature. She explains that it started with Chabelita's Heart/El corazón de Chabelita (2022), a picture book she wrote to fill a gap from her childhood. By creating stories for children, she ensures young queer readers can see themselves in storybooks. In her academic text Coloring into Existence: Queer of Color Worldmaking in Children's Literature (2023), she amplifies the work of other QTOC storytellers, offering readers literature that expands our collective understanding of queer and trans of color lives across North America and at all life stages. More than that, she demonstrates how QTOC literature offers all readers tools to disrupt inequitable social and political systems to ensure each of us sees ourselves in books and in the world.