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A Latina Snow White inspired tale with the gay equivalents of the seven dwarves blossoms in Eat Your Heart Out

Eat Your Heart Out is about an aspiring big city fashionista with her seven supportive gay roommates.

Eat Your Heart Out
Image credit: Lydia Anslow (Oni Press)
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News by Gary Catig Contributing writer
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There is something about fairy tales that makes it easy to get lost in the fantasy. That’s why these classics serve as inspiration for other stories, sometimes receiving a modern twist to stay current. In Eat Your Heart Out, writers Terry Blas and Matty Newton, and artist Lydia Anslow retell Snow White by turning the princess into an aspiring fashion designer and making her seven dwarves into seven gay guys.

Eat Your Heart Out
Image credit: Lydia Anslow (Oni Press)

At this year’s ALA Annual Conference, Blas spoke about the process in creating the supporting cast for the upcoming graphic novel.

“... when we created this story, because it was so inspired by fairy tales and Snow White, we were like if there is like Sleepy, Happy, Dopey, Grumpy, Sneezy, Bashful, Doc, then what’s the queer equivalent of that," says Blass. "I was like, 'Oh, there’s a drag queen and a Twink and a bear!' so that automatically helped differentiate that group to come together for this found family.”

The protagonist, Blanca, shares many similarities to Snow White. Anslow described her as “a little Pollyanna-esque, where she will just make friends with anyone she can.”

In this updated version, Blanca is a young Latina who escapes her evil mother to pursue a fashion career in New York City.

Blas sees Blanca as the person he wished he could be at that age.

“I just wanted to write a character who took a lot of control over her own life. I was raised in a high demand religion. I was a Mormon missionary. I, at 17, 18, didn’t have the courage to go live the life I wanted to live. So, I really wanted to live that out through a character who just decided to go chase her dreams at a young age.”

Hopefully readers can learn a lesson through Blanca’s journey. “I think for a lot of young kids, when they are living in a situation that they aren’t in control, the best thing they can do is find something they are really passionate about and focus on that when times seem difficult because they could turn that into a career one day,” Blas said.

Eat Your Heart Out releases August 13, 2024.

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