Meet the Singaporean and Filipino boys' love creators publishing with a new local imprint

When 37-year-old Beatrix Lowe discovered boys' love (BL) fan fiction online as a teenager, she hid her interest from her classmates to avoid being shamed as a "fujoshi" or "rotten girl".

- Shawn Hoo

When she started writing gay fan fiction, she would post them only on her private blog.

Today, the genre - which started in the 1970s as taboo manga about male-male love targeted at Japanese women - has exploded in popularity across Asia as novels, television series and films.

Fujoshi, once a derogatory term, has been reclaimed by the fandom and anime conventions, including in Singapore, now openly feature BL artists.

Lowe - a Singaporean who used to work in the education sector - says the genre has always had a niche audience here and is becoming more mainstream. "Back in the day, people were not as open-minded. Then, when I was teaching, I saw students openly reading BL in class," she says.

NEW LOCAL BOYS' LOVE IMPRINT

While the stigma lingers, Lowe, who uses a pseudonym, is dusting off her old manuscripts for her publishing debut. Her two novels, Point Of Information and Castrato, will be published in 2026 by newly launched Giraffe Media, the first Singapore-based publishing imprint featuring original BL fiction and comics as well as translations.

The imprint is a relative late comer in the region where media companies have courted the "pink dollar".

In Thailand, for example, the BL series industry is projected to generate 4.9 billion baht (S$196 million) in revenue in 2025, according to a study by Siam Commercial Bank Economic Intelligence Center.

Its impact is felt overseas, such as when hit Thai BL television series 2gether (2020) superstars Bright Vachirawit Chivaaree and Win Metawin Opas-iamkajorn were greeted by screaming fans in packed malls when they visited Singapore in 2023.