And for Jess, she felt the decision actually embodied Francesca’s storyline in her book When He Was Wicked.
“I didn’t want to just insert a queer character for queer,” she told Teen Vogue in June. “I want to tell a story that accurately reflects a queer experience, and the first time I read Francesca’s book, I really identified with it as a queer woman. Maybe not in the way Julia Quinn intended.”
“Her book is very much about [Francesca] feeling different, and not really knowing why,” Jess continued. “In the book, I think it has a lot to do with her just being an introvert, but as a queer woman, a lot of my queer experience, and I think a lot of my friends’ [experiences have] been about that sense of feeling different, and navigating what that means.”