“Science is my life!” heroine Ariel proclaims early
on in POTENTIAL, and it’s true. The junior in high school
loves her science classes and even tries to figure out with a
friend how to distill homemade alcohol --- something she thinks
would be both a good learning experience and fun.

But there are other, more pressing issues that Ariel must deal with
in her junior year of high school. For one thing, she had settled
on the label of bisexual after her sophomore year experiences, but
she’s definitely feeling more and more drawn to the lesbian
side. Now if only she could figure out how to navigate the tricky
emotional waters of dating during the teenage years.

Ariel Schrag’s true-life series of work --- which began with
freshman year in AWKWARD and continued in sophomore year’s
DEFINITION --- is as brave as it is funny. Schrag completed each
work in the summer after each respective school year, not only
putting her own life squarely under the microscope, but also
telling the stories of her friends, family and acquaintances. As
her classmates at Berkeley High School in the mid- to late
’90s learned, nothing was secret or sacred.

Schrag’s abilities both as an artist and a storyteller have
greatly improved by the time of POTENTIAL. AWKWARD was a potpourri
of images, sometimes far too crowded for one page, but DEFINITION
showed real evolution in her work. With POTENTIAL, she allows
herself plenty of room in which to pace her story, starting slowly
with her puppy love relationship with a boy and moving on to the
more complicated territory of her lesbian dating life and the
emotional effects of her parents’ divorce.

POTENTIAL, like the work that preceded it, succeeds on several
levels, not least of which is that Schrag doesn’t rehash
coming-of-age tales we’ve read before. Instead, it’s a
fresh take on teen years, one set in a modern age where
homosexuality doesn’t have to be hidden. That doesn’t
necessarily make it any easier for the author, but it’s
refreshing for the reader to follow a young woman who’s
confident in her own sense of self.

Schrag doesn’t shy away from mature themes in her work, nor
does she sugarcoat it. She offers an honest account of the
awkwardness and thrills of discovering one’s self and
one’s sexual identity. It’s a bonus that all of this is
coupled with a more daring (and often quite strikingly beautiful)
drawing style. Schrag can go from cartoony to chiaroscuro within a
page, which mirrors the complexities of her story.

It’s a wonderful experience growing up with Schrag and
experiencing her teen years vicariously. Next year, Touchstone will
release LIKEWISE, in which senior year hits and the story of
Schrag’s high school career comes to an end. One can only
hope that her post-high-school years were as eventful and fun as
this, and that Schrag will decide to keep entertaining us with her
wit.