Raegan Revord is in their happy place—among the books. As the afternoon sun shines through the windows of an antique bookstore in downtown Los Angeles, they slowly wander through the stacks, pausing to peruse pages, treating each title like a treasure waiting to be unearthed.
“I’ve had a book in my hands basically since birth,” recalls Raegan, who uses they/them pronouns. “Being surrounded by stories has been this major constant in my life.”
And when you sit down with this 17-year-old author/actor/professional bookworm, it doesn’t take long for them to start telling you some.
One minute, they’re recounting the time they attempted to read the dictionary cover to cover (spoiler alert: they succeeded). The next, they’re reminiscing about the memories they made behind the scenes with their Young Sheldon co-stars. If you’re lucky, they might even spill a few plot points from their debut novel, Rules for Fake Girlfriends, which dropped on Sept. 2.
But for Raegan, storytelling is much more than just a casual convo starter in a dusty shop on a Tuesday afternoon: It’s their job, their passion…and the way they’ve always made sense of the world.
Raegan’s earliest bookish experiences included devouring the Harry Potter series (at age 8, mind you) and making weekly trips to their neighborhood library in L.A. There, little Raegan would routinely hit the checkout limit—a habit that earned them VIP status at the front desk.
“I’d walk out with a huge stack,” they say. “The librarian there always let me keep everything a little longer than the due date. She knew I’d bring them back in perfect condition.”
Growing up, Raegan was the kid who, in their words, “read too much.”
“I’d skip out on recess and lunch so I could spend all my time in the corner with a book. I only recently found out my mom had me banned from the school library because she wanted me to socialize instead.”
As it turns out, being “forcibly put out on the playground” was actually a good thing. “One of my friends could draw really well—at least, as far as 6-year-olds go,” Raegan remembers. Naturally, the two decided to collaborate. “I wrote and she illustrated—we did an American Girl doll and superhero crossover.”
While their butter-churning/world-saving mashup never made it to shelves, it did spark Raegan’s knack for crafting an unforgettable tale.
Before long, Raegan was translating those storytelling skills to the screen. After booking commercials, modeling gigs and guest TV appearances, they landed the role that would change everything: Missy Cooper on CBS’s Young Sheldon.
Suddenly, they were starring in a hit sitcom, winning over audiences as a sassy yet sweet middle schooler. “We went through life together for almost a decade,” Raegan says of their onscreen counterpart. “Getting your period, your first kiss—something would happen to her on the show and then, in reality, it would happen to me.”
With the show’s success, Raegan saw an opportunity to share even more stories. Six years ago, they launched Read with Raegan, a virtual book club spanning Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and their website, where they recommend their top titles to fellow bibliophiles.
What started as a monthly “Hey, look what I’m reading rn” post evolved into a dedicated following of nearly 200,000—and counting. “I remember the first time someone came up to me and told me they loved a book I recommended,” they say. “I was shocked because I was so used to fans talking about Missy and the show. It made me feel like I was building a real community.”
Giving reading recs to hundreds of thousands of people is one thing. But putting your own book in the spotlight? For Raegan, the fear of having other people read their work almost held them back from publishing it in the first place.
“I’m even weird about my parents or my friends seeing my writing,” they share. “It’s not that I’m scared about whether everyone will like it. But because everything I write feels so personal, it’s vulnerable to have my words actually out there.”
Somewhere deep down, though, they knew Rules for Fake Girlfriends—one of 15 book concepts that sat in their “tornado” of a Notes app—was worth pursuing. So they got the draft done in sneaky writing seshes on the set of Young Sheldon (“As soon as they’d say ‘cut!’, I’d pull out my laptop for five minutes, write anything I could, then stash it away”) and ultimately produced the sweet sapphic love story, one they wish had existed when they were growing up.
“Today there’s so much art with great queer representation,” says Raegan, who cites Heartstopper as their personal gold standard for LGBTQIA+ media. “But it wasn’t that way for me growing up. There weren’t characters where I was like, ‘This is me.’”
Determined to make Fake Girlfriends different, they didn’t shy away from including very real parts of themselves in every chapter. “There’s a character named Maddi who’s literally my baby,” Raegan reveals. “Writing about them was so important because they’re nonbinary, just like me.”
Coming out this year to their nearly 2 million followers only gave Raegan more practice in being their authentic self, openly and unapologetically. And the bravery it takes to do that? It almost makes publishing their first book feel like no big deal.
To be Continued
While half of Raegan’s brain is focused on the release of Rules for Fake Girlfriends (and fan-casting the hypothetical Jenny Han-directed movie adaptation), the other half is already dreaming up their next storytelling adventure.
They’ve secured a two-book deal but aren’t returning to the FGU—that’s the Fake Girlfriends universe—just yet. “Someday I want to do a prequel, but not right away,” they share. “Or maybe I’ll workshop a fantasy idea I had…”
Beyond writing, nothing is off the table. They plan to keep acting and promoting Read with Raegan—while also giving screenwriting and producing a try.
With success comes scrutiny though, and not everyone appreciates Raegan’s honesty about their identity or their focus on telling queer stories. Backlash, especially on social media, reminds them how much work remains.
“I live by this Tom Holland quote,” they say. “‘If you have a problem with me, text me. And if you don’t have my number, you don’t know me well enough to have a problem with me.’”
It’s that confidence and determination that make Raegan not only the next author to rule your TBR but also someone you can genuinely root for. Because if there’s one thing they’ll do, it’s write the world they want to see—where *everyone* gets a fair shot at a happy ending. And honestly, that’s the world we want to live in, too.
