This graphic novel approaches many social issues from a personal angle. Rather than centering one specific issue, Barry explores the way many contemporary and recent historical social issues intersect across her life and contribute to her adult identity. Barry explores her racial identity, depicting scenes from her childhood with her mixed race mother and Filipino grandmother and describing moments where she experienced otherness linked to her culture and race. Barry also describes the impact of class on her upbringing, showing how it intersects with the performance of gender and with access to self-expression and art. She traces the way social class continues to affect her adult life and observes how others are shaped by the social class of their own upbringing.

Perhaps most central to this work is its exploration of trauma. By excavating memories that speak to her intersectional identities, Barry writes about the childhood traumas that deeply impacted her conception of herself and continue to manifest in her adult life. She explores how inherited trauma courses through her family, shaping her mother’s anger and class anxiety and emerging in Barry’s own behavior. She explores her harmful experiences of being racially othered, her family’s refugee status, gender-based violence, substance abuse, and mental health challenges.