Simon Spier

* Movie
* Book

**Simon Spier** is the main character and protagonist of the book *Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda* and its movie adaptation *Love, Simon*. In the movie and its spinoff television series Love, Victor, he is portrayed by Nick Robinson.

He is a closeted gay teenage boy who starts an online friendship (with feelings in the background) with another gay boy from his high school who goes by the nickname Blue. However, when one of his emails ends up in the wrong hands, he needs to confront his sexuality and the consequences of coming out.

## Personality

Simon is described to be a funny, awkward teen. Who seems to be really calm, and very dramatic. He is also very emotional. He is also very passionate about the things he loves and is trying to be the best friend he can be. Change is very difficult for for him to adapt to.
Throughout the movie Simon evolves to a stronger personality. While he is trying to keep his sexuality a secret at first, he is later openly gay in front of his school.

## Appearance

In the books, Simon is described as having blonde hair and gray eyes. He also needs to wears glasses, which he has said make him look like Harry Potter in the past. He is called "cute" by Peter, a junior college student, whom he meets at a bar.

In the movies, he is shown to be brunette with brown eyes, and only wears glasses in flashbacks, suggesting that he wears contacts.

## Books

### *Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda*

Simon realized that he was gay through little things, such as frequently dreaming about Daniel Radcliffe, being interested in the lead singer of the band *Passion Pit* during middle school while not even particularly liking their music, and hiding from his eight grade girlfriend in fear of having to make out with her.

In August, at the start of the new school year, Simon found a blog post on his high school's tumblr account, which he interpreted as being written by a gay person. After Simon had left a comment on the post using his secret account, Blue emailed him and the two began communicating.

However, Martin Addison finds Simon's emails he sent to Blue, telling him that he's taken screenshots of them. Martin uses this information to blackmail Simon into helping him get closer to Abby, Simon's friend, whom Martin has a crush on.

After his encounter with Martin, Simon proceeds to follow his normal routine, ignoring Martin. He spends time with his two best friends Nick and Leah, and understands that Leah has a crush on Nick, while Nick, on the other hand, has a crush on Abby. He believes that if he can get Martin and Abby together, he might even be able to help Leah with her crush on Nick, using his odd situation for something good.

A week later, Simon's dad makes jokes about being gay while Simon is on a Skype call with his older sister Alice, making him feel uncomfortable. He is unsure about how his family would react if he came out to them and whether they would accept him or not.

Eventually, Martin keeps urging Simon to arrange a meeting with Abby, which Simon keeps assuring he will. The two exchange their phone numbers and Simon heads to his drama club meeting, where he and his classmates Abby, Taylor, Emily, Mila and Martin begin rehearsing their play. By the end of the rehearsal, Simon invites Martin to Garrett's Halloween party.

### *The Upside of Unrequited*

Simon makes a couple cameos in the book. His first apperance is when he responds to a text on Abby's phone from her cousin Molly. He then appears again later during a Skype conversation between Molly and Abby where he asks Molly if Abby would have been sorted into Gryffindor or Hufflepuff and is embarrassed by Abby's lack of knowledge in the subject.

### *Leah on the Offbeat*

Simon and Bram are dating, and Simon is performing in the school play for the year in the role of Simeon. In senior year, he and his friends are considering their college applications. Initially, he wants to apply for NYU with Bram, but instead chooses to attend Haverford College in Pennsylvania and keep a long-distance relationship with Bram at college. He also reacts to finding out that Leah and Abby have started dating when he and Bram find them kissing at senior prom. Both of his friends come out as bisexual to Simon and Bram, and Simon is overjoyed that not only did Leah and Abby reconcile their rocky relationship, but they have fallen for each other.

### *Love, Creekwood*

In *Love, Creekwood*, Simon stays in contact with his friends from Creekwood High during his first year of university at Haverford College. Simon finds it increasingly difficult to be apart from Bram, and after e-mailing Leah, he realizes that he wants to be with his boyfriend no matter what. Simon therefore decides to transfer from Haverford to NYU for the following year.

## Adaptations

### *Love, Victor*

On Victor's first day of high school at Shady Creek, he is met by the new assistant principal who tells him the story of Simon Spier. Through social media posts that Victor scrolls through he learns that Simon is happily living in New York City together with Bram and is attending NYU. Victor reaches out to Simon in his DMs in Episode 1. Though Victor is initially hostile to Simon as he is envious that Simon seems to have a perfect, understanding family and friends, Simon responds and provides advice and support to Victor through messages as Victor tries to figure his sexuality out. Simon also narrates his messages in the show. In Episode 8, Victor suddenly decides to visit Simon in New York City after Simon wrote he wished Victor was in New York so he can give Victor a hug at the end of Episode 7. However, as Victor made sudden plans, Simon wasn't able to be there at the beginning of Victor's visit as he was stuck in Jersey at his cousin's bachelor party. Instead, Simon sends his boyfriend, Bram, to pick up Victor and show him around. Towards the end of Victor's visit, Simon shows up after leaving the party earlier because he has been texting with Bram and felt bad about missing out on meeting Victor. When Simon and Victor finally met in person in front of Messy Boots (a gay club that Bram and his roommates brought Victor to on college night), Victor is again hostile towards Simon since Victor believed that Simon had shared Victor's messages with his roommates to laugh at him. Simon explains that he wasn't sharing Victor's messages to make fun of him, rather that he doesn't have all the answers to Victor's many questions, but each of his friends have a piece of the puzzle. Victor closes the conversation by asking if it is always this cold in New York, to which Simon gives his sherpa lined denim jacket to Victor as a souvenir of his trip. Simon also shares that Bram would have burned the jacket if he saw him wearing it again, before heading back into Messy Boots with Victor. Simon is later seen cheering on Victor as he is brought onto the stage at Messy Boots. He continues to communicate with Victor through text after his trip.

## Trivia

* Overall, Simon had three girlfriends, all of which have broken up with him.
* Simon's email address in the book, hourtohour.notetonote@gmail.com is a reference to Elliott Smith's song *Waltz #2*.
	+ Simon's email address in *Love, Creekwood* is simonirvinspier@gmail.com while he still use hourtohour.notetonote@gmail.com when emailing to Bram.
* Simon’s email address from the movie frommywindow1@gmail.com is a reference to The Kinks’ song “Waterloo Sunsets”.
* On Halloween, all the way until Fourth Grade, Simon always used to dress up as a boy in a dress.
* Simon is canonically a fan of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, My Chemical Romance, Panic! At The Disco, Elliot Smith, Hamilton: The Musical and Warrior Cats.
* Singer Shawn Mendes has revealed that he almost starred in the movie as Simon, but could not do the film due to scheduling issues.

## References

1. ↑ Shawn Mendes Says He Almost Starred In "Love, Simon"