Tegan and Sara are two decades into their career and the Canadian indie-pop due are now reflecting on the beginning: their school years. In 2019 they released their memoir High School, which became a Freevee series. Now they’re thinking about earlier in life, in their graphic novel Junior High.
Released on May 30, Junior High throws back to the awkward but formative years of becoming a teenager. Sure, there is an abundance of becoming-a-teenager books for girls. But how many of these books deal with same-sex attracted twins hitting puberty? Life’s hard and humiliating enough at that age, our bodies change and hormones go wild, but what about if you’re different beyond regular age-related changes?
The Quin twins also find music at this age, perhaps helping with identity-related struggles. Being twins helps and hinders the transition into a stage of life built on finding individuality.
“You see us reunited in gym class after spending their first day of junior high without each other,” the pair, now 42, tells EW. “After a group of curious students makes the connection that we’re twins, a new friend chemistry blooms between almost all of us. The awkward social transition from kid to teenager is captured in this endearing moment of oversharing our personal history with total strangers.”
Eisner award-winning illustrator Tillie Walden was the visual artist for the graphic novel. “Turning their script into comics was one of the most fun experiences I’ve had as a cartoonist,” she said. “I got to excavate their minds and experiences and do everything I could to bring out the hilarity and emotion of their words. I couldn’t be prouder of Junior High!”
While High School was set in the time Tegan and Sara were actually in high school, Junior High has a contemporary twist, according to the twins’ website. “Set in the present day, this inspiring, lightly fictionalized autobiography offers a glimpse at Tegan and Sara before they became icons, exploring their shifting sisterhood, their own experiences coming out, and the first steps of their musical journey.”
