Actor Nicole Maines will tell the story of her life and career in a new memoir.
The Dial Press will publish Maines’ It Gets Better…Except When It Gets Worse: And Other Unsolicited Truths I Wish Someone Had Told Me this fall. The press describes the book as an “irreverent and candid coming-of-age memoir of Nicole Maines, trailblazing trans actress, activist—and sometimes someone who’s just existing, which is actually pretty hard!”
Maines, under the name Susan Doe, was the plaintiff in Doe v. Regional School Unit 26, a landmark 2013 case in which the Maine Supreme Court ruled that Maines could not be denied the use of her school’s women’s bathroom because she was transgender.
She booked her first major acting role in 2018 as a cast member of the CBS and CW series Supergirl. She is currently a cast member of the Showtime series Yellowjackets.
The Dial Press says that in her book Maines “tells the story of her journey from childhood in rural Maine to the spotlights of Hollywood, sharing the lessons she’s learned along the way.”
Maines announced her book on Instagram, writing, “For a long time, I tried and struggled to find a space to use my voice and share my thoughts. I attempted to use my social media platforms for that purpose, but I found more times than not that I was running up against an immovable wall of online trolls and bigots. I needed a way to be able to say what I needed to say without inviting a pointless debate over my own humanity.”
It Gets Better…Except When It Gets Worse is scheduled for publication on Oct. 15.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
