“If you draw a triangle with a circle resting on the top point, nobody will be able to tell that it’s a girl in a dress. To add hair, draw kind of a semicircle on top. If you do this, you’ll be safe, because it looks like you’re just doodling shapes.”

In the opening paragraph of Gracefully Grayson, Grayson, the first-person narrator, addresses an abstract “you,” which may be interpreted as a direct address to the reader. Grayson instructs them on how to draw a princess in the most unidentifiable way possible, which introduces the idea that she is trying to hide her identity in order to remain “safe.” The young protagonist is characterized by the difference between her appearance and her true nature, paralleling the princess doodle.

“I try to look at it like I’ve never seen it before just to confirm that nobody else would know that the sketch is really a princess. But I’m good. It’s too abstract.”

After sketching the abstract princess, Grayson demonstrates her hyperawareness of what other people might think. This foreshadows the potentially negative reactions to the revelation of Grayson’s identity.

“How would it feel to hide an enormous, important, life-threatening secret from your friends, your neighbors, and maybe even members of your own family?”

Although Finn’s question is about his lesson on the Holocaust, Grayson interprets it in a more personal way. When Finn calls on her to answer, she responds that her own strategy would be to isolate herself to avoid detection. This sets up some of the book’s main themes, as Grayson struggles to form relationships for fear of being rejected because of her female identity.