Shug Avery (the icon, the legend, and the heartthrob) is everything Lilly Widimer wanted to be coming out of high school. It took her approximately 154 minutes and 43 seconds to finish The Color Purple from the moment she picked it up and flipped to the first page. God blessed Celie's heart with a tall stalk of saccharine Shuga cane; Shug was a strong woman bursting with charisma and a voice Lilly could imagine challenged Miss Beyonce's. She was the first woman who made Lilly feel unapologetically affirmed in her queerness. Shug didn't even need to declare she was bisexual -or whatever she is- to get a woman to fall in love with her. She was just her and wasn't afraid of the judgment that could come with it. Lilly was sure no girl would swoon over the khaki uniform pants that were too short at the ankles, showing off the ashy white skin. No woman would see sex appeal in the bun that sat on the top of her head like a dirty pile of laundry after a week-long vacation. She was too awkward to sing, so she stuck to playing her sax in the back of the band. Lilly knew that if she tried to become who she wanted, everyone around her would struggle to move her from what they always knew she was.
No one special.
So, yes, Lilly fell in love with Shug's jazz and pizzazz and was sure that if she had all that, she'd be bound to be the woman of the hour too. The only way Lilly knew how to commit such identity fraud in the midst of her crisis was to apply to a college no one knew the name of and become a Philadelphian expat. A clean slate without the constant fear of someone from her high school ruining the holy grail of a transformation she was going to undergo. Luckily, her father had been planning to move to bumfuck Minnesota because of his own crisis, and she was more than willing to go with him. So with that, Lilly applied to every Minnesotan college she possibly could and was lucky enough to get a spot in the undergraduate freshman class of 2028 at Fry College. With enough beauty TikTok, a really good moisturizer, and a big chop to a mini fro, Lilly was already feeling better than ever. Fake it til you make it became a mantra in every journal entry and her best friend became her reflection, practicing her most charming smiles and smooth pickup lines. When she finally could say she felt "pretty", she joined every Facebook group for incoming freshmen as she could under the name "Shug."
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Just Like Shug
Roman d'amourA girl named Lilly voluntarily calls herself Shug. After reading The Color Purple, she became enamored with Shug's character and decided to commit to it in college. She has an incredibly bubbly and attractive personality. Everyone loves being around...
