TRANS TEEN SURVIVAL GUIDE

A chatty and informal guide for transgender teenagers and others who want to understand more about those experiences.

The authors cover topics such as coming out, names, gender roles and expression, dysphoria, hormones and surgery, coping with puberty, wellness, interacting with the media, and activism. Spot illustrations and selected comics from Labelle’s Assigned Male series are interspersed throughout. The authors say that they have written a book with all the information they would have liked to have had access to when they were younger—and, loose and conversational, the tone is pulled straight from the internet. It feels like reading think pieces from whatever pop-journalism site is currently trending mixed with a personal transition blog, sometimes reminiscent of LiveJournal from the trans days of yore, and seasoned with earnest Twitter-like affirmations. A sense of vagueness permeates the information; generalized references to modern society and plenty of assumptions of a shared cultural background hamper the larger usefulness of the information. It’s worth noting that the close focus on the British health care system and support networks will only be useful to readers located there, and the authors often neglect to address the ways that disability, race, and other intersections may influence a trans person’s life.

There are still very few nonfiction books for trans teens in need of support, and this title helps fill in that gap.