Transgender Memoirs
Synopsis
In her unique, generous,
and affecting voice, nineteen-year-old Katie Hill shares her personal
journey of undergoing gender reassignment.
Have you ever worried that you'd never be able to live up to your parents' expectations? Have you ever imagined that life would be better if you were just invisible? Have you ever thought you would do anything--anything--to make the teasing stop? Katie Hill had and it nearly tore her apart.
Katie never felt comfortable in her own skin. She realized very young that a serious mistake had been made; she was a girl who had been born in the body of a boy. Suffocating under her peers' bullying and the mounting pressure to be "normal," Katie tried to take her life at the age of eight years old. After several other failed attempts, she finally understood that "Katie"--the girl trapped within her--was determined to live.
In this first-person account, Katie reflects on her pain-filled childhood and the events leading up to the life-changing decision to undergo gender reassignment as a teenager. She reveals the unique challenges she faced while unlearning how to be a boy and shares what it was like to navigate the dating world and experience heartbreak for the first time in a body that matched her gender identity. Told in an unwaveringly honest voice, Rethinking Normal is a coming-of-age story about transcending physical appearances and redefining the parameters of "normalcy" to embody one's true self.
Have you ever worried that you'd never be able to live up to your parents' expectations? Have you ever imagined that life would be better if you were just invisible? Have you ever thought you would do anything--anything--to make the teasing stop? Katie Hill had and it nearly tore her apart.
Katie never felt comfortable in her own skin. She realized very young that a serious mistake had been made; she was a girl who had been born in the body of a boy. Suffocating under her peers' bullying and the mounting pressure to be "normal," Katie tried to take her life at the age of eight years old. After several other failed attempts, she finally understood that "Katie"--the girl trapped within her--was determined to live.
In this first-person account, Katie reflects on her pain-filled childhood and the events leading up to the life-changing decision to undergo gender reassignment as a teenager. She reveals the unique challenges she faced while unlearning how to be a boy and shares what it was like to navigate the dating world and experience heartbreak for the first time in a body that matched her gender identity. Told in an unwaveringly honest voice, Rethinking Normal is a coming-of-age story about transcending physical appearances and redefining the parameters of "normalcy" to embody one's true self.
Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Arin
Andrews shares all the hilarious, painful, and poignant details of
undergoing gender reassignment as a high school student in this winning
memoir. We've all felt uncomfortable in our own skin at some point, and
we've all been told that it's just a part of growing up. But for Arin
Andrews, it wasn't a phase that would pass. He had been born in the body
of a girl and there seemed to be no relief in sight. In this
revolutionary memoir, Arin details the journey that led him to make the
life-transforming decision to undergo gender reassignment as a high
school junior. In his captivatingly witty, honest voice, Arin reveals
the challenges he faced as a girl, the humiliation and anger he felt
after getting kicked out of his private school, and all the changes,
both mental and physical, he experienced once his transition began. Arin
also writes about the thrill of meeting and dating a young transgender
woman named Katie Hill and the heartache that followed after they broke
up. Some Assembly Required is a true coming-of-age story about
knocking down obstacles and embracing family, friendship, and first
love. But more than that, it is a reminder that self-acceptance does not
come ready-made with a manual and spare parts. Rather, some assembly is
always required.
You may recognise the names of these two teens from a few years back,
when their relationship took the world by storm. Arin is a female to
male transgender and Katie is male to female and this is the story of
their relationship and sadly their break up. It quite appropriate I
review these two books together, due to this fact and the fact I read
them within days of each other. Arin’s book I have lent to my very good
friend, since he also transgender and when I came out to him, and this
book was mentioned. So hence the picture is missing from my Stacking
The Shelves (link), I don’t normally lend my books out, but as this is a
female to male memoir; it might be more appropriate from him to have
it.
Both memoirs take the reader through their retrospective childhoods through their hormone treatment and prospective gender re-assignment surgeries. I realised that the thoughts I had been having myself through my own childhood were apparent. In Katie’s case she always wanted to dress up and be a girl. This took me back to my school days in the Wendy House, with me dressing up as the bride and pretending I was on the Love Boat (80s TV programme with a catchy theme tune) and it was sinking. I was the damsel in distress and unfortunately no-one saved me. Perhaps if things were different for me (my life is a long story), I may have transitioned earlier and I wish there was more support and acceptance out there back then. But unlike Cher I can’t turn back time. Thing is as upsetting as it was for me to read these two memoirs, I am happy for Katie and Arin: they found support, acceptance and each other.
Not all transgender people have the support or gain the notoriety these two did. It reads like a fairy tale really, but in many ways it wasn’t due to their break up and other circumstances in their lives. What it has taught me is to be who I am, so as I type with my painted nails: I am proud to be transgender. Even though I am not fully out or living full time as my true self: there is support through Laura and my trans friend, which I am grateful for and hopefully others along the way. There will be a fight ahead and there will be tears, but I am me and will be me.
Both memoirs take the reader through their retrospective childhoods through their hormone treatment and prospective gender re-assignment surgeries. I realised that the thoughts I had been having myself through my own childhood were apparent. In Katie’s case she always wanted to dress up and be a girl. This took me back to my school days in the Wendy House, with me dressing up as the bride and pretending I was on the Love Boat (80s TV programme with a catchy theme tune) and it was sinking. I was the damsel in distress and unfortunately no-one saved me. Perhaps if things were different for me (my life is a long story), I may have transitioned earlier and I wish there was more support and acceptance out there back then. But unlike Cher I can’t turn back time. Thing is as upsetting as it was for me to read these two memoirs, I am happy for Katie and Arin: they found support, acceptance and each other.
Not all transgender people have the support or gain the notoriety these two did. It reads like a fairy tale really, but in many ways it wasn’t due to their break up and other circumstances in their lives. What it has taught me is to be who I am, so as I type with my painted nails: I am proud to be transgender. Even though I am not fully out or living full time as my true self: there is support through Laura and my trans friend, which I am grateful for and hopefully others along the way. There will be a fight ahead and there will be tears, but I am me and will be me.
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