Check out our interview with Ciera Burch, the author of "Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away," down below.

What was your inspiration behind "Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away?"

I was preparing to turn 30, and realized that I still had absolutely zero interest in dating, let alone the marriage and kids route some friends, and even my younger sister, were embarking on. Without "I’m focusing on school" as my go-to excuse to everyone who asked — including myself — I had to really get introspective. And my introspection so often takes the form of writing. I started looking more into "invisible" identities, like asexuality and aromanticism, and got so fixated on the invisible side of it that I knew I wanted to explore what that might look like literally — for who you are as a person to be so pointedly erased.

And so, OLIVIA was born.

What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?

Always, it means reading widely and often every type, or shade, of book that I can. Reading about new experiences and identities and love stories and horrors and biographies. Especially while writing OLIVIA, it meant seeking out more "invisible" books, books with characters or by authors whose identities and stories might be overlooked, especially within some of the forgotten letters of the LGBTQAI+ acronym.

Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?

Some books may be fiction, but the humans reading them exist in the real world, where a variety of people exist. We may not understand each other’s experiences or identities perfectly, and cannot ever, but we can educate ourselves into understanding and compassion. And if we can do that for book characters we admire or fall in love with or gush over, we can absolutely do that for real life humans.

Reading makes people better. Reading widely does so doubly.

Tell us a little more about "Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away" and why you decided to write it.

"Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away" is about Olivia, a young girl attempting to come to terms with herself in the unhallowed halls of middle school, where life is already tough, as her friends have crushes and navigate social media while she, she feels, is left behind. It’s all about trying to get people to see you (quite literally, in her case) while being uncertain if you can even see yourself. It’s a little slice of the existential crisis that, I think, is what the ages of 10-13 are all about. I decided to write it in the middle of my own little identity quarter-life crisis, for the kid I was, and for all the kids who might be going through something similar, whether that’s struggling with their own identities or any other change happening in life.

What can fans expect from your book?

• Friendship!
• Crushes! And the lack of them!
• Social media!
• A school dance!
• Dungeons & Dragons!
• Invisibility! When it’s useful, and when it’s really, super not.

What's up next for you in the bookish world?

I ask myself that question a lot! For now, I’m pivoting a little to adult, but staying in the realm of mini existential crises…and maybe some romance.

Check out the book here.