One day in the seventh grade at the Nueva School in Hillsborough, Amelia Roskin-Frazee walked into the library, past the rows of colorful spines and sat down at a computer - out of sight of her classmates.

In her brief moment of privacy, she typed the keywords "gay, lesbian, LGBT," waiting expectantly to see what the library's catalog had to offer. But it was a fruitless search: The only thing listed on the screen was an outdated parenting guide, gathering dust on the shelf.

Two years later, as part of her new organization's mission, Amelia, now 15, personally delivered a box of books to the same library.

The Make It Safe Project, born in November, donates boxes of 10 fiction and nonfiction books on LGBT themes to schools and youth homeless shelters where such resources are otherwise unavailable. So far, Amelia's initiative has made available more than 250 volumes to 45,000 kids in more than 15 states, not to mention the first international delivery to a school in Mauritius.

"Kids look up to books," says Amelia, a student at San Francisco's Lick-Wilmerding High School. "They see (literature) as stories that they can believe in, characters that they can identify with. When there are no books with LGBT characters, it gives LGBT (and questioning) kids the message that it's not normal, that nobody else is like them, that something is wrong with them. And that's a really dangerous thing."

Sex education

Because schools' health curricula rarely cover topics outside the scope of heterosexual relationships, nonfiction books are also crucial for basic sex education as well as advice on how to come out in a positive way.

Entering her sophomore year, Amelia has already been recognized by the Advocate magazine as one of the "Top 40, Under 40 LGBT Activists of 2012."

The summer before she discovered her library's dearth of LGBT literature, Amelia's mother had assured her that there was nothing she could say that would grant her permission to stay up any later. Amelia answered, "What if I told you I'm gay?" Bedtime was indeed delayed.

"You can only come out once!" her mother, Annie Roskin, tells her now when it's time to hit the hay. But mostly Annie recalls the little dance that Amelia did after the liberating sentence slipped out. "It was only one person, but I felt free," says Amelia.

A dispute broke out among her classmates the following year when someone made a homophobic remark online. Before she knew it, Amelia was arguing the case for her rights rather than equal rights. She had come out to her entire class by accident over the Internet, but didn't regret it. "I think subconsciously it was on purpose because I wanted people to know, but in the moment, I was just making my points."

Since then, Amelia has done far more than engage in virtual debates. As the first openly gay student in Nueva School history, Amelia says, she also founded its Gay-Straight Alliance, the Rainbow Connection, and served as its president when she was in eighth grade. Then she took the leap into high school - and national advocacy, as a student ambassador for the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network.

During a gathering of the network, she discovered she wasn't the only one whose school lacked LGBT literature - all 17 of the other student ambassadors from across the country had encountered similar obstacles.

Fight against bullying

The network's goal is to end bullying of any form, with a focus on LGBT youth. Amelia works toward it with literature, giving kids somewhere to turn for answers. She named her project Make It Safe because "all students - regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender identity - deserve to be able to go to school and feel safe."

Books must uphold a rigorous set of criteria to make it into a Make It Safe book box. In addition to being accessible, accurate, realistic and age-appropriate depictions of LGBT life that are well written and give helpful advice, they have to be "kind and accepting of all religions and political views," Amelia says, rattling off her meticulous list of requirements.

Titles like "Annie on My Mind," a love story about two teenage girls in New York City, hold special meaning for her, having been pivotal during her own coming-out experience.

Her parents, teachers and most of her classmates have been supportive of her activism. "She seems to me unusually courageous," her mother says. Amelia wants "the environment to be more hospitable for kids to be whoever they are. ... (I am) proud and honored to be her mom."

But Amelia has received her share of e-mails from strangers who are angered by her work. Mature beyond her years, she says, "There are always people who are going to disagree. But at the end of the day, they are on the wrong side of history with this kind of thing.

"People are beginning to learn that books like this don't just provide comfort," she adds, "they actually save lives."

Amelia has been touched by the heartfelt messages that began appearing in her in-box - kids thanking her for making it safe and giving them hope. "I've had teens that got the books e-mail and say it helped them not kill themselves," she said.

Amelia hopes that Make it Safe, which is on its way to becoming a registered nonprofit organization, will eventually reach all 50 states and go international on a larger scale, giving 100,000 kids in schools and LGBTQ-inclusive youth homeless shelters around the world access to books within the next couple of years.

As if that's not enough, she also plays in a professional steel drum band, the San Francisco Panhandlers; designs costumes for her school's participation in San Francisco Carnaval; goes to San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's Shakespeare camp; and hangs out with her friends.

Oh, and she writes novels, too. One of them - about a girl who writes her dead girlfriend back to life - has reached full length and is in its sixth, and nearly final, draft.

For more information about the Make It Safe Project, including how to donate, visit
