In this artfully crafted and ultra-relatable fictionalized graphic memoir, Governor General’s Award–winning author-illustrator Elise Gravel takes readers back to her formative tween years filled with colourful hobbies, true-blue friends, and undiagnosed ADHD.

On the pages of her lined notebook, high school frosh Elise draws pictures of her prized rock collection, chronicles astral projection slumber parties with her witchcraft-obsessed bestie Asma, jots down quirky facts (“Napoleon was once attacked by a herd of RABBITS”), shares crafty instructions (e.g. how to make a handbag out of an old pair of jeans), and puzzles over her changing body (“This morning I found this really long, really thin hair growing out of my elbow … What is happening to me?”).

Gravel’s high-energy cartoon illustrations are a totally tubular time capsule of the early 1990s. Cassette mixtapes, Bart Simpson T-shirts, and hair scrunchies are delectable, nostalgic eye candy scattered throughout the book. Capitalized words penned in neon highlighter yellow and electric pink crank up the visual impact.

Rapid-fire diary entries document a creative kid being her authentic self and also divulge her angst about being different from all the other girls in her class. Even though she thinks New Kids on the Block’s lyrics are uncool and French kissing sounds like a “bunch of slimy slugs wrestling in a bowl of melting Jell-O,” she feigns interest to try to fit in and dodge being branded a “weirdo.” Wondering if she’ll ever be accepted for who she is, Gravel laments, “Do I have a personality or am I just a collage of what I think other people want me to be?”

Puberty is awkward for everyone, but Elise’s curious mind constantly churns and spins out of control. Unable to turn off her overactive amygdala, she’s kept awake at night by racing worries like, “What if everybody ditches me at the same time?” Doodles of her demons depict insomnia as a creature with one eye wide open and the other half shut; stress is an intense spiky mass of many arms pointing in accusation. Even as she checks off all the boxes in a magazine quiz to identify anxiety disorder, Elise focuses on positive things (“One day, I will adopt a baby scorpion.”) and receives love and support from her pals. An afterword offers more thoughts on growing up with an ADHD brain.

Fun and fascinating, True Colors is a delightful, Day-Glo portrait of the artist as a young tween.