Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual harassment, bullying, and mental illness.

Bee is the first of the novel’s two protagonists and first-person narrators of the novel. Her physical attractiveness is essential to her character: She is around 24 years old and has long, dark hair; olive green eyes; “pouty lips”; a septum piercing; and a body that Nolan describes as “lush” (37). When Bee was young, she developed a fascination with the boyband INK, and her favorite member was Nolan Shaw. This teenage crush prefigures Bee’s romance relationship as the adult protagonist.

Bee’s background and experience provide important context for the novel’s treatment of her work in adult films, presented as a positive expression of sexuality and agency. She grew up in Texas and was raised by two moms, Mom and Mama Pam: They are supportive, loving parents who accept Bee for who she is. They have taught her to be self-confident and sex positive. Through her life, Bee has encountered ridicule and discrimination for her body shape, beginning with a relationship with a classmate in high school who wanted sex but also to keep this secret. When Bee broke up with him, he threatened to publicly share a topless photo of herself that she had sent him.