This book has the stories of six transgender teenagers, narrated in their own words, from interviews with the author. Four of them contain photographs, a fifth has pictures that don’t show the face, and the sixth one requested no images at all. They were all in different stages of the transition process when the book was written. Some male to female, some female to male. One teen was non-binary and another intersex (very interesting to me, was reading the part where they described several doctors’ tests that showed they had a physiology not quite male or female, but literally something inbetween). These stories are so individual. Reading them will make you realize that of course, trans kids don’t fit any stereotype (no more than anyone else does!) Some of them came from well balanced, supportive families. Others struggled with bullying at school, family members who refused to speak to them, or couldn’t accept it when their child came out. Some had caring friends, others got the cold shoulder and had to forge new relationships. There’s kids in here who knew they were different from a very young age, and others who only realized it when they hit puberty. Their awareness and decisions on what to do about it all took different paths, too. One teen delves a lot into definition of words and muses on the injustice of how society defines things. Then you read about another who doesn’t care about that stuff at all, just wants to be a person happy in their own skin. That’s the common thread here. How they felt different than what they looked on the outside, and needed something to change about that. And how things became better, when that finally happened. For the most part.
There’s also an interview in the back, with a doctor who works at a trans clinic in New York. Only one chapter felt awkward to me, the final one, where the author interviewed the teen at a theater venue where he was performing. It didn’t feel as coherent and thorough as the other sections. Honestly, a few of the attitudes and opinions in this book took me by surprise, but overall I think it’s a great insight into what teens who don’t fit the binary role go through. What their daily lives, relationships with family and friends, and struggles to fit in are like. They just want to be themselves.
Borrowed from the public library.
One Response
This sounds wonderful! There’s so much talk *about* trans kids, so it feels really important to have work that highlights their own voices. It’s especially great that there’s a intersex teenager in the book, as I feel like intersex people (despite being as common as redheads!) often get left out of conversations about gender.