Raina Telgemeier

Raina Telgemeier is an American cartoonist. She is the creator of several graphic novels for the young adult audience including Smile, Drama, Sisters and Ghosts. Her books have all made it to the New York Times bestsellers list.

Raina was born on May 26, 1977, making her a Gemini. She lives in San Francisco, California.

Raina Telgemeier – Her Politics

There wasn’t anything we found that indicated what political bent Raina may subscribe to. If one were to draw a conclusion based on her family background and residence, we would say Telgemeier is a liberal, and possibly a progressive liberal. Her hometown of San Francisco has a population of 8-to-1 for Democrats/Republicans. SF is also considered to be America’s most politically active city.

Raina Telgemeier – Her Religion

Again, there is nothing that indicates what Telgemeier’s personal views on God are, or if she even believes in a certain faith.

The closest we came to finding out was in an interview about her 2016 book Ghosts, which draws upon how people deal with death.

“I think most kids — most people probably — have some sort of fear of death. Including myself. And the idea of making it not scary but something jovial has always appealed to me. And so in depicting the ghosts in this book, and the skeletons in this book, I wanted them to be friendly. I wanted them to feel like they were friends.” (1)

Raina Telgemeier – Her Relationships

She is married to Dave Roman, who is also a writer and illustrator of comics. They tied the knot in 2006.

She has a younger brother, Will, and a younger sister, Amara.

Raina Telgemeier – Her Own Smile Story

Raina’s 2010 book Smile: A Dental Story is semi-autobiographic. As a preteen Raina suffered an injury which required multiple orthodontic procedures. Because she needed to wear facial equipment to correct her dental problems Raina was picked on as a teen.

“In sixth grade, I was running home with friends after a Girl Scouts meeting and I tripped, fell, and knocked out my two front permanent teeth,” Raina explains “I spent 4 1/2 years getting surgeries, braces, headgear, and false teeth all in order to have a normal smile again. Middle school is not an easy time for anybody, so throwing extreme dental trauma on top of that meant that I had a very difficult time during my tween years. I was incredibly self-conscious, and I looked weird. It made me an easy target [for bullying].” (2)

Sources:

1: NPR

2: Cosmopolitan

Photo by Niccolò Caranti. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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