Technology

According to Carolyn Kellogg who interviewed Newman in 2017, Newman struggled to find a publisher who would publish a children's book depicting a lesbian couple. Although modern mechanical machines allowed for relatively inexpensive book production, Newman was forced to self-publish Heather Has Two Mommies with her friend Tzivia Gover under the name In Other Words Publishing. Newman and Gover managed to crowdfund about $4,000, and combined with Newman’s own savings, about 4,000 copies of Heather were published in 1989. Newman’s inability to publish through mainstream publishers endangered the book’s formation before it was even created. After a couple of years, once the book became popular, Newman agreed to allow well-known, British LGBT+ publisher Alyson Books to print Heather.

Today, Heather Has Two Mommies can be borrowed from the library in book and eBook form. Unlike the book’s former material state, an eBook cannot be destroyed or “lost” in an attempt to prevent children from reading it. Additionally, eBooks can be borrowed at any time from any place, as long as the user has a library card. Book covers are no longer visible to passersby and readers are less likely to be judged for their reading choices. This new freedom comes at a cost, though, as many lower-income children may not have access to devices required to read Heather as an eBook. In these communities, Heather may be on library shelves, but its physicality makes it vulnerable to destruction.