Memoirs in Transition

Rethinking Normal by Katie Rain Hill and Some Assembly Required by Arin Andrews are two new YA memoirs by transgender teens, the former about the MTF experience and the latter about the FTM experience. They should be read as a companion piece, since the two teens were involved in a serious relationship and tell similar stories of brave advocates who grew up in Oklahoma. They have sad, but inspiring stories to share.

I like the term " memoir in transition, " which is the subtitle of Hill's book, because not only have the Hill and Andrews gone through a huge transition in gender and sex, but they are also in flux like all adolescents and their stories, individually and together, are constantly being written and rewritten.

The number of new LGBT books is exploding; it's overwhelming to keep up with them, actually, which is a great new experience. I think I've written before about Baby Be-Bop, Annie on My Mind and Am I Blue? being the only books in my childhood library. While diversity in teen literature and LGBT books has a long way to go, finally there are more books that reflect the underrepresented T in LGBT. Visibility is so important.

Readers might be interested to know that Hill's coauthor is the graphic novelist Ariel Schrag who published her first novel, Adam, this year.