Hi, my name is Q Licht and I am the founder and director of the Purple Sticker Project.

I originally got the idea for this project after noticing that several bookstores I visited did not have a lot of books with positive LGBTQIA+ representation, and that those books were usually out of the way – they were way at the top of bookshelves out of reach or at the bottom collecting dust.

This problem stuck out to me even more after visiting an amazing bookstore in Petaluma, California, called Copperfield's Books that did integrate and highlight books with positive LGBTQIA+ representation. I wanted to make a difference in my community by putting a system in place that could make school libraries more like Copperfield's Books.

One of my scout troop leaders discussed my project idea with Angela Gates, Soquel High School's Librarian. She has a Master's degree in Library and Information Science, and became my project advisor. Angela passed along an idea from a former Soquel High School principal to use purple stickers rather than an established LGBTQIA+ symbol (like a rainbow) so that students who can't openly look for LGBTQIA+ content can still find books with positive representation.

The Purple Sticker Project was founded in 2020.