Ahead of her new book, “Atmosphere,” Taylor Jenkins Reid is opening up about her sexuality, detailing how it impacts her writing process and being perceived a certain way by fans.
In a May 15 interview with Time magazine, Reid revealed she is bisexual, despite many fans assuming she was straight as she is married to a man.
“It has been hard at times to see people dismiss me as a straight woman, but I also didn’t tell them the whole story,” she said.
Reid admitted that assumptions about her sexuality are nothing new for her. In fact, they began when she was a teenager when she dressed differently than the social norm.
“I got hit pretty quickly with, ‘Why can’t you dress more like a girl? Why don’t you do your nails? Why do you talk that way? Can’t you be a little bit quieter?'” she told the outlet. “I started to get people who would say, ‘Oh, I get why you dress like a boy—you’re gay.'”
But Reid didn’t feel like she identified with being labeled as gay, as she was attracted to both sexes — her first love was a man and then, in her early 20s, she fell in love with a woman. With both loves, however, people doubted if it was the right course for her.
“This was the late ’90s, so nobody was talking about bisexuality. And if they were, it was to make fun of people,” Reid told the outlet. “The messages about bisexuality were you just want attention, or it was a stop on the way to gayville.
“I found that very painful, because I was being told that I didn’t know myself, but I did,” she added.
Taylor Jenkins Reid at the 2024 Critics Choice Awards. She told TIME that “it has been hard at times to see people dismiss me as a straight woman, but I also didn’t tell them the whole story.” (Emma McIntyre / Getty Images)
Reid hasn’t been shy in expressing her sexuality through her writing, penning characters who fall on different ends of the spectrum of sexuality.
In “Daisy Jones & The Six,” the main romance centers around a heterosexual love triangle, while “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” details a love story between two women. Meanwhile, “Malibu Rising,” which was Read with Jenna’s pick for June 2021, showcases mainly heterosexual relationships, but one character experiences a queer awakening.
Her new book, “Atmosphere,” out June 3, allowed Reid to explore more of her attraction to women. The novel features a love story between one woman in outer space and one on the ground.
“It just felt like time for me to write a very high-stakes, dramatic love story,” the author told Time.
Taylor Jenkins Reid and her husband Alex Jenkins Reid. She told TIME that her husband has always been supportive of her bisexuality, allowing her space to explore that side of herself in her writing. (Robyn Beck / AFP via Getty Images)
While she may not have always been open with the public about the specifics of her sexuality, she told Time that she was always honest with those closest to her. Her husband, screenwriter Alex Jenkins Reid, even showed her an idea that describes someone’s sexuality as a house with many rooms.
“My attraction to women is a room in the house that is my identity — Alex understood this book was about me spending time in that room,” Reid said. “He was so excited for me, like, ‘What a great way for you to express this side of you.’ And he helped me get the book to be as romantic and beautiful as it could be.”
Reid also understands that because she’s married to a man, she gets “straight-passing” privileges that others don’t receive.
“How do I talk about who I really am with full deference to the life experiences of other people?” she told Time. “Basically, where I came down is I can talk about who I am, and then people can think about that whatever they want.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
