Leah Burke

**Leah Catherine Burke**  is a character in the novels *Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda* and *Leah on the Offbeat*, and the movie *Love, Simon*. She is the best friend of Simon Spier and Nick Eisner. In the book, she plays the drums in the band Emoji along with Nora Spier, Anna, Morgan, and Taylor Metternich.

## Personality

Leah is Simon and Nick's best friend. She is loyal and hates being left out on anything concerning her friends. She is sarcastic, intelligent and quiet. Leah is kind, funny, insecure, hardworking and caring. She also likes video games, including *Assassin's Creed*.

## Appearance

In the books, Leah is said to have green eyes and dark red hair. Simon states once that she had a “very Irish face”. She also has freckles across her cheeks, and is tall and fat.

In Love, Simon, she has brown hair and brown eyes.

## Books

### *Leah on the Offbeat*

Leah on the Offbeat is the book sequel/followup to "Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda". Leah Burke, the main character, is described to be both 'on the heavier side', as well as part of a lower income/less privileged family. She is an only child and has a single mother, who is a lawyer. Due to her circumstances, she is quite set on going to the University of Georgia through an academic scholarship. She also despises Martin due to his actions in shown in both the film "Love, Simon", as well as the book the movie is based on "Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda". As described in the summary of the book, "she loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it", and the fact that "her mother knows she’s bisexual, but she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon".

The main plot of the book follows her journey through life, especially: college, prom, a friend group breaking apart, and the fact that she might be in love with one of her friends.

## Adaptations

### *Love, Simon*

From the beginning, Leah is one of Simon's best friends. After attending a high-school party together, Leah returns to Simon's house for a sleep-over. Simon's parents reveal that Leah has been sleeping over for ten years and this is a normal occurrence.

It is during this sleep-over that Leah asks Simon if he ever feels different. Leah feels discouraged that she is not someone who can just "hook up" and feels as if she is destined to love one person so much that it hurts. Simon says he feels the same way, tells her it's getting late and turns to go to bed. Instead, he eagerly checks his phone for any emails from Blue.

Later on, Nick asks Leah on a date after being encouraged by Simon. Leah brings this up to Simon to see if he thinks she should go out, and she seems taken about by Simon's encouragement.

Leah FaceTimes Simon to let him know that his secrets are out on Creek Secrets and tries to offer support, but Simon is too overwhelmed to receive any comfort.

Leah is upset with Simon after Nick and Abby discover that Simon has been trying to keep them apart, and Leah reveals that she has been in love with Simon. She admits that she thought he might reciprocate her feelings because he had always been so picky about girls. Leah says she would have been fine had Simon come out to her, but feels as though Simon set her up for heartbreak with his manipulations and calls him cruel.

Simon stages a run-in with Leah to tell her that he had fallen in love with Blue and apologizes for what he did. He tells Leah that it was easier to come out to Abby because he thought telling Leah would change everything. Leah then asks to hear about Blue and says she needs to kill her mental image of "Hetero-Si."

## Trivia

* The film shows that Leah's parents are still married and she has two younger siblings; one brother and one sister. However, in *Leah on the Offbeat*, it is revealed that her parents are divorced and she is an only child. This was due to the film being released prior to the publication of *Leah on the Offbeat.*