Transcript
Thaïs Perkins: When you find that book that really reflects something you've been thinking about or wondering about, it feels like coming home. It'll give you the answers you're looking for. It'll stop that spinning that you've got in your heart.
Building Reverie books was an exercise in creating a space where everyone could feel comfortable. As a queer identifying kid, the first place I would go was bugs, and it was as though it was the only place I could let my guard down. Now, there's an entire body of literature where queer people have joy and they have happy endings, and they get to experience love, and they get to experience life. It feels great to share that.
I think in order to continue living in Texas, I had to do this. I could not stay here and not just devote every ounce of energy I can to the community. So we make a little world and we help kids, and we come in and we close the door and we talk to people, and we bring them whatever hope we can. Being true to yourself isn't easy for anyone. You can be who you know you are. Then you can allow everyone else to be who they are too. More than that, eagerly learn about their perspectives. Everything you're doing is an active creation. Your family, your home, your lives together, and this business is no different.
My family is deeply involved with the business, but specifically my wife, my son loves to work the register, so he'll pop in, so he'll talk to people and ring 'em up and kind of run the place. My 16-year-old painted murals all in the bathroom. What my kids say to me is that they're proud and they're inspired, but I've put everything I love here, all of it. It's all here.
At the end of the day, I get to come to a place that I created where people come to find solace and they come to find joy. We talk about things that are interesting. I'm just trying to represent a vision that the world can be good.
