My Sapphic Media List
Welcome to Valeria’s Sapphic Media Master List! We’re glad you’re here, and you may be wondering, why is this here? What is it? (Jump straight to the list)
The TL:DR
I wrote a book, started reading sapphic romance for research for the sequel, realized I’m a trans lesbian, binged nothing but WLW for a year. I always give out recommendations and decided to put what’s in my head into a list. This is that list. To read a longer explanation, the full story is below.
My Overall Rating System
I have personally read, listened to, or watched each and every one of these. These ratings are purely my own.
5 – Perfect. No Notes.
4-4.9 – Varying degrees of great. I generally have a few points of mild criticism but overall very enjoyable with little complaints.
3-3.9 - Varying degrees of pretty good. Generally enjoyed though I had some stronger criticisms. Usually it’s the ending that’s disappointing, or a character choice I disagree with.
2-2.9 – Bad. There are things enjoyable about it, but generally avoid.
1-1.9 – Do not watch/read. I stomached it for whatever reason, but please don’t.
DNF – So bad I couldn’t bother finishing it.
Is It Spicy?
No – No spiciness, maybe a kiss or two, but mostly yearning.
Kinda - Tongue Wrestling, maybe a bit of side boob, closed door scenes.
Yes – Steamy scenes, but generally no explicit nudity.
Very – Nudity, sex, hot, multiple scenes or at minimum one very hot scene.
Ultra – Borderline adult-only content.
The Full Story
In 2016, shortly after starting rehab for alcoholism, I started writing a book, Unrest. My main character, Aless, is an alcoholic, latina, lesbian werewolf who fights fascist vampires in an underground lunar city. It’s a fun read, and also a story about my addiction. In about 2018 I went to a writing convention, pitched it, got a publishing deal, and the book released in April 2020. Aless, as a character, is a self-insert meaning I wrote her to represent me. Some time after release I was telling a friend about that and how I wrote Aless to explore my struggles with addiction when she asked me what is likely the most important question of my life:
“Why did you feel the need to write yourself as a woman?”
Cue panic. I didn’t have a good immediate answer so I went with the intellectual one (which is still true). Which was that sci-fi has little latine rep, less rep for latina women, and even less for queer women. I just wanted to write a story with characters I wanted to see more of, and I don’t like how alcoholism is portrayed in most media.
The real truth, however, was that I never even considered writing myself as male. It simply never occurred to me. I had always chosen female avatars in games when given the choice and have resonated more strongly with female characters in general. My work is also in a women dominated industry, and the vast majority of my friends were, and continue to be, women.
Fast-forward a couple years. My wife encouraged me to read the A Court of Thorns and Roses series and while I enjoyed them, especially Silver Wings (Nesta is the best character in the series, and Cassian > Rhysand), they held little lasting impact. Nesta’s story hit me like a runaway freight train but it had little to do with her love story and everything to do with her recovering from trauma.
As I started drafting the sequel to my book, I thought, “Y’know I read a bunch of fantasy and sci-fi books written by women about women to make sure I got it right. I wonder what romantasy on the sapphic side is like…for research.”
I don’t remember which book I listened to first but that’s not the point. What matters was that it grabbed me by the throat and dragged me down a sapphic romance rabbit hole. For the next year or so I consumed nothing but sapphic media. Why? Because I had finally found content that felt like me. Suddenly, I saw and heard the way I love women, think about women, admire and look up to women reflected back at me. It was only then that all the signs in my life, from my wife asking me for years if I was trans, to always feeling physically uncomfortable playing male avatars, to never being happy with my face in the mirror no matter how fit I was, to the myriad other examples that I realized: I am not cis. I came out as genderfluid in 2024, then as a trans woman in 2025. My coming out story is also quite a journey, but that may be its own future post.
Since then I have been preaching the sapphic gospel to anyone I can, and those who have spent time on my table have likely gotten a few recommendations from me. I do this so often that I decided to stop relying on memory and created this database of content I’ve seen, so all of the ratings here are my own opinion and not an IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes rating. It is a living list so as I watch/remember/find pieces of media I’ve consumed it will be added here because sharing is caring, and sometimes it’s hard to know if something is worth watching.
I hope you all enjoy the list and find something great to watch, read, or listen to!