Takemiya is included in the Year 24 Group, a term coined by academics and critics to refer to a group of female authors in the early 1970s who helped transform shōjo manga (manga for girls) from being created primarily by male authors to being created by female authors.[4] As part of this group, Takemiya pioneered a genre of shōjo manga about love between young men called shōnen-ai (lit. "boy love"). In 1970, she published a short story titled Sanrūmu Nite ("In the Sunroom") in Bessatsu Shōjo Comic, which is possibly the first shōnen-ai manga ever published and contains the earliest known male–male kiss in shōjo manga.[5]