Young adult literature (YAL) that features lesbian athletes helps provide adolescent readers with a more inclusive and accurate picture of who female athletes are and can be. In exploring how these texts might serve as counternarratives to televised media's heteronormative representations of female athletes, the author wondered: Do lesbian athletes embody their sexual identity in YAL? Or, more simply, are they out or closeted? Using the Identity Formation Model, the author examines the representation of lesbian athletes in young adult literature and suggests that students benefit from reading about characters with a range of sexual and gender identities.