#sensitivity reader

As I'm finishing the pilot there are a few characters and concepts I want feedback for, specifically regarding Lunes transfeminity and 3 unnamed Tlingit characters. More under the cut:

Hi, nice to meet ya! I'm Leon and my life has rapidly fell apart since August 2024. This was due to my dad's sudden decline from what we thought was from MS, but from a rare stage 4 colon cancer.

With that, there's a threat of homelessness for my mom, who has sacrificed her life for my dad and our entire family.

UPDATE (6/1/25): I appreciate your help! I was able to find a new job but still would appreciate funds to help us pay for medical bills and my father's hospice/nursing stay.

UPDATE (9/5/25): My dad passed away so now my mom is having issues staying home. I'd really appreciate this being reblogged again.

○ WHAT WE NEED ○

- About 5,000 USD minimum. This will cover moving expenses at the very least.

● WHAT I'M OFFERING ●

- $3+ doodles through my Kof-fi or DM me!

- $5 to $10 messy colored sketch commissions (some examples here)

- Virtual nerd yard sale through Mercari (I got a Daft Punk ita bag, keychains and all sorts of fun things will be uploaded over-time.)

- A discount for stickers through my sticker shop here. Discount code is: SOS2025 [I have a LOT of sticker designs. Shipping is forever and always free. Waterbottle friendly and weather resistant.]

- Novel writing critiques, beta reading and sensitivity reading (DM me but know my pricing is extremely cheap with This Economy, I don't want to break anyone's bank)

- Business stuff such as cheap logo designs, email templates, commercial t-shirt designs, business cards, I can help with that.

♡ IF YOU JUST WANNA HELP ♡

- GoxFundxMe here lol 🚑

- Donate to my Kofi ☕️

- I have CashApp, Venmo and Zelle, but I feel more comfortable sharing that via DM.

♡ BOTTOM LINE ♡

I really sincerely appreciate your help. My goal is to cover the finances so that my family can be able to focus on grieving my father and have some peace.

Hello! I've been getting pretty tired of not seeing characters like me (or that are supposed to be like me but... aren't). The good news is, you too can write a psychotic character, even if you aren't on the spectrum yourself! Here are a few quick tips, and feel free to reach out to me if you have any specific questions

1: Don't make them a murderer/serial killer

The bar is on the floor here. This is a stereotype that gets people killed.

"But I have a legitimate reason!"

To enforce a stereotype that gets people killed? No, you don't.

"But it's a subversion of the trope!"

Do you have personal experience relating to psychosis? Do you understand fully how this portrayal harms people? If not, no it isn't.

"But real psychotic people can be murderers!"

So can real autistic people. How would you feel if every single autistic character was the villain in a slasher movie?

With that out of the way, let's move on to...

2: Consider their symptoms

Psychosis is defined as a combination of hallucinations and delusions, but many more symptoms may occur. Personally, I've experienced all of the following at various times:

Auditory hallucinations (Phones ringing, insects buzzing, screaming, and thudding sounds are the most common)

Visual hallucinations (Usually discoloration- like looking through an instagram filter)

Delusions (A different one each time for me, more about this later)

Severe mood swings (I literally cursed out a litter of kittens once)

Difficulty speaking (I can still write just fine for some reason, not sure about others)

Compulsions (This may be because of my comorbid OCD)

General confusion and fear

Your character may experience any combination of these (though probably only a handful at a time). They may also experience things not on this list, as many people do.

3: Delusions and insight

Delusions are the persistent belief that something clearly irrational is happening or will happen. Not fear, belief. Insight is your ability to determine that delusions and hallucinations are not real. Personally, I have very high insight when medicated and am able to tell very quickly that I am having an episode, sometimes even before the bulk of the symptoms start.

"But if you can tell it's not real, doesn't that mean it's not a delusion?"

This is probably the hardest thing for non-psychotic people to understand. Yes, I am able to tell people that my delusions are not real, and usually behave like they're not real as well. That doesn't mean that I do not believe them. When asked about my delusions, my first instinct is to say that they are real, and I have to make the conscious decision to contradict them. It's like if the earth was discovered to be flat- you can see all the evidence and accept it, but part of you will never really believe it.

Some examples of types of delusions I've had:

X person can read my mind

X person wants to hurt me

I am being watched or stalked

If I do not complete X action, I will die/disappear (different from a compulsion)

I am dead or not real

Some basic tenet of the world around me is not true (e.g. space is not real, only the earth exists)

My delusions tend towards the paranoid, but just about anything can be a delusion. Even if it seems silly, it can be a serious problem for the person experiencing it.

thanks for all your work, mods! <3

- eyemask anon

Hello!

For specific disabilities, there are some Tumblr pages that offer sensitivity reading:

@blindbeta does sensitivity reading for works involving blind characters. You can find information about their availability, rate, and such in their pinned post.

@vitiligo-is-not-a-trend does sensitivity reading for works involving characters with vitiligo.

@a-little-revolution has mentioned doing sensitivity reading [Link] for characters with dwarfism (and possibly autistic and hard-of-hearing characters).

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any active blogs on the topic of general sensitivity reading.

If you're open to going off-site, there's also a subreddit called r/SensitivityReaders for connecting writers with sensitivity readers.

They have a few categories:

Culture/Ethnicity

Disability

Job/Experience

LGBT+ & LGBTQ+ (For some reason these are two different tags?)

Mental Illness

Physical Illness

Religion

I'm not sure about the other mods but I will mention that I do personally do sensitivity reading, beta reading, and editing occasionally.

Cheers,

I have vitiligo does that mean I can't do X, Y, or Z?:

If you have vitiligo: Welcome to the club :D! In general this advice is mainly aimed towards people who don't have vitiligo, BUT if you do, do what you want! The only thing I would ask of you is to be aware that A) People might not be aware that you have vitiligo which is why you're taking liberates with it, B) People might try to emulate your depiction so if someone without the disorder doing something you might find uncomfortable, keep that in mind! and C) Be mindful of whether or not you're contributing to potentially harmful stereotypes! I'm not going to tell you, someone with the disability, that things are off limits, and I am aware that not everyone feels the same about this disorder, but keeping those things in mind won't hurt anybody!

Is it okay for vitiligo to be animal or shape based in pattern?:

NO. It's de-humanizing and harmful as many ablest insults aimed towards people with this disorder are animal-based. Also it purposefully goes out of it's way to make a person less human purely because they're disabled, which is obviously ablest in itself. Vitiligo is a disorder, NOT an aesthetic.

The same applied for characters inspired or based on animals, especially ones that are patterned.

YES this also includes giving them patterns like paint splotches, hearts, stars, and other stuff like that.

How does vitiligo develop?:

Vitiligo is an auto-immune disorder, which means its genetics based, BUT(!) it is not something you are born with, and needs to be developed through a person's life time. There are theories as to how it develops but as far as I'm aware there's no one solid answer.

There are also various comorbidities that can occur with vitiligo including but not limited to hypothyroidism, higher risk or cancer, and even hearing loss.

Are POC the only people who can develop vitiligo?:

Nope! Vitiligo can occur in anyone of any race/ethnicity. The reason why you only see people with darker skin tones portrayed with it is because there's more visual contrast, thus making it seem more unique/distinct/obvious.

What does this blog offer?:

I do all sorts of things! I show examples of vitiligo represented in media, answer any questions people might have about it in general, questions specific to character/plots, character design tips, and sensitivity reading just to name a few!

Why am I not answering an ask?

I've got a few mental and physical conditions which make me extremely tired all the time and sometimes I just don't have the mental energy to do it </3

Also some asks are tricky! I might just hoard the ask until I can think of a proper way to respond or if vitiligo finally gets enough media rep that I can do a proper analysis or make an actual wish-list lol.

Who runs this blog?:

@trinrose3! I developed vitiligo when I was 7 years and and for the majority of the time that I've had this disorder I felt disgusted and ashamed of it. Over the last few years I've learned to appreciate my vitiligo, as well as develop a slight hyperfixation on it in general, so I made this blog in order to spread awareness and positivity!

I'm the only one running this joint so if I'm being a little slow to answer an ask please be patient <3

Also here's a link to my ko-fi I'm struggling to pay bills and the health issues, job market, and other life circumstances are making it really hard right now so every penny is appreciated! I also take art commissions!

Trans man/transmasc individual

Ideally also Black/African American cause intersectionality is keyy

Have an ellipsus account/be willing to make one

This is short notice but there should still be some time (I'm only a 600 words into day 1) before I start writing, I am just looking for someone willing to help me hash out ideas or and look over the finished product to ensure I'm not about to completely misrepresent

Uh you don't really need to know Duke, my Duke fan beta reader has already agreed to beta this one too, so...is that it? I think that's it?

Full disclaimer - the character I'm working with/would like to consult about identifies as a cis man who is GNC and never identifies otherwise, but I want to talk to a transfem SR specifically because I'm concerned about playing into transmisogynistic tropes. If you're not comfortable consulting on a character who I would describe as transmisogynized but not transfem, that's completely understandable.

The story is as-of-yet unwritten, and I'm in the process of planning it out, so it shouldn't be a lot of reading, just conversation. I haven't worked with a SR in this sort of context before, so please bear with me as I'll probably have to ask questions about how best you'd like me to explain what's up and what I'm worried about. I did include some context below the cut.

I'd prefer to work with a SR who is comfortable with psychologically complex, messy characters and discussion of abuse (particularly sexual abuse, parental abuse, and childhood neglect) and trauma, both from the sides of perpetrator and the victim (the character in question is both). Every character in the story is a "bad survivor" and that's important to the themes, but the other two aren't transmisogynized.

I'm currently trying to decide if I should take out the GNC elements of this character entirely, decrease them/change them up so the transfem reading has less basis and/or push it to be more of a 'historical fashion' only sort of deal, or maybe if I need to lean into them but with more of an eye for tact than I'm really equipped for right now & just work more closely with SRs in the future. I don't like the idea of just flat-out removing diverse characters from the narrative 'in case' I do something problematic (what a cowardly way to end up with a milquetoast cis straight white cast!), but I care more about not contributing to the transmisogynistic climate right now.

I strongly believe in fair compensation. I'm prepared to pay $20/hour and above. If you have rates lower than that, I'm happy to still pay $20/hour. If your rates are higher, bear with me as I'll need to make sure I can keep things in-budget but I am absolutely happy to pay higher rates as well. (If you're more comfortable charging a flat rate, let me know and I can work something out as well - I just want to make sure it's a reasonable amount of pay for the amount of work!)

Please shoot me a dm on discord at @/oozeandgoo7913 if you're interested!

(& if you're not—please reblog so it can be seen by people who might!)

Story context/details about the character and what I want to be advised on under the cut if you want to know what you're getting into, I wanted to keep the main post from being super long.

Specifically being like "im writing a book and this character has xyz and I have ideas about it and I was wondering if you would tell me about-" I had to do the research too, a lot of it, and you're genuinely asking me to do the research for you, to work out how your character could be a better embodiment of disability for your story.

Showing me ur art like "is this right?" Sure!! Absolutely! Because it takes me a few seconds to glance and know if a prosthetic or wheelchair is drawn correctly.

Equally tell me all about ur character so I can gush too, I loveeee an infodump about ur OCs.

But .... I'm not going to analyse ur story to work out if you did a good job. Pay me to be ur sensitivity reader sure. But I'm not doing it for free, thats like years of research I've done to start to call myself specialised in understanding crip representation and the effects it might have and how it should be done and why it should be done like that.