8 Queer Booktubers You Should Subscribe To Right Now
I love booktube. If there’s anything better than reading, it’s procrastinating reading by watching videos about books. (No? Just me?) Unfortunately, booktube can be…a little one note. With the huge variety of books out there, you’d expect the YouTube book community to be as varied, but there is definitely a type that rises to the top: high-energy cis/allo/straight white people talking positively about YA titles (with a professional lighting/sound set up). There’s nothing wrong with those channels, but I do like to see a little more variety in the content that I watch. Luckily, there are people on booktube making all sorts of content, even if it isn’t getting as much attention. I’d like to highlight one aspect of that, which is queer booktubers who talk about queer books.
Adriana of perpetual pages
Adriana is the content creator I aspire to be. Their yearly wrap-ups are legendary: concise, poetic, and moving while using a format that is usually formulaic. Adriana is brilliant and thoughtful, and isn’t afraid to discuss difficult subject matter. The books they discuss are diverse both in terms of queer content and authors of color. I can’t recommend their channel highly enough: they should top not only any list of queer booktubers, but booktubers in general.
Cece of Problems of a Booknerd
Cece has a huge platform by booktube standards (30k+ subscribers), and she uses it to spread the good word about queer books. She is entertaining, energetic, and produces a huge amount of awesome content. Cece has one of the few channels that I’ll watch pretty much anything she puts up—travels vlogs, TBRs, tags, etc.—because I know she’ll make it worth watching.
Njeri of Onyx Pages
Njeri’s channel is focused on Afrofuturism, which is something I haven’t seen from any other creator on booktube. She talks about book that I haven’t heard of before, and she always has thought-provoking things to say about them. I picked this video in particular partly for the content, but also to demonstrate how badass she is to be casually vlogging in a crowded restaurant. Inspiring.
Joseph of The Boy Who Cried Books
What can I say about Joseph? I love him, and I’m sure you will, too, if you just watch a few of his videos. Joseph really brings himself and his personality to his videos. He has an easy, casual style that makes you feel like you’re in the room with him, and he usually ends his videos with a sped-up clip of himself singing! He reads tons of queer books, but honestly, I’m watching to feel like I’m hanging out and catching up, whether he’s talking about books or school or Buffy.
Alyssa of Pucks and Paperbacks
Alyssa puts out a genuinely intimidating amount of original and creative content, including the giant collab Booktubers Recommend LGBTQIA+ Books, reaction videos, interactive videos like INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS PICK MY READ-O-RAMA TBR! and a bunch more. Alyssa has ton of queer book–themed videos, so you should make sure to go back and check them all out if you’re looking for more queer booktube content!
Kate of Kate Hickey
I actually just found Kate’s channel through her doing the LGBTQIA+ Booktuber Tag, but I already love it. I mean, someone starting their booktube video with “Let’s talk about gay shit” is pretty much an instant subscribe for me. I’m excited to go back and watch all of her videos. She reads an interesting variety of genres, and she just seems so natural and comfortable in front of a camera, which I always admire.
Kav of Reading Solace
Kav is a nonbinary asexual lesbian Indian American teenager making videos all about diversity in books and the book community. They are always putting out interesting discussion videos around this theme, and I’m constantly impressed with how honest and open Kav is about their identity and experiences, when the internet can be a hostile place to share that with.
Nicole of Woolf’s Whistle
Nicole has so many beautifully-produced videos about queer women books, including her video about butch women representation. She has lots of themed recommendations, like f/f books by the season. She also talks about writing on her channel.
Of course, those aren’t all the queer booktubers out there! If you’re looking for more, definitely check out my playlist of the people who have done the LGBTQIA+ Booktubers Tag I made. Oh, and I have my own booktube channel.
Let me know if I’ve missed any of your favourite queer booktubers, because I’m always looking for more!
Ed. note: this post has been updated to correctly reflect the sexuality of one of the BookTubers.
