[1] They described their family as loving and affirming of Johnson prior to them officially coming out at age 25.
[6] Johnson's writing has appeared in Teen Vogue, Entertainment Tonight, NBC, The Root, BuzzFeed, Essence, Ebony, them, and TheGrio.
[2] The book is a collection of coming-of-age essays describing Johnson's memories of growing up with particular focus on their Black, queer identity.
"[8] As of November 2021, All Boys Aren't Blue was one of the most frequent targets of book bans and challenges amid an "unprecedented" period of book banning according to ALA.[9] It was removed from libraries in eight states due to claims of "sexual obscenity" for its descriptions of queer sex and masturbation.
[9] In response to the claims, Johnson stressed the sexual education value of the book and context for those descriptions, saying in a Time interview, "I am using my story to teach kids about the mistakes that I made the first time that I was having sex, so they don’t make those same mistakes.