Lindsay Herriot - Growing Up Trans: In Our Own Words

Welcome.

This book began as a conversation, and we hope that it will spark many more. Waiting for the Vancouver SkyTrain one otherwise ordinary morning, we (Lindsay and Kate) talked about how it seemed that stories about young, transgender lives framed them in only two ways, as tragedy or triumph. We knew from our trans family and friends that there are so many ways to be young and trans and wished there were a book that represented the experiences of many different trans youth. Growing Up Trans: In Our Own Words was born out of that conversation and out of a need for lots more conversations and representations of what young trans life is like. Recognizing how cisgender adults tend to do most of the talking about trans youth, we wondered how we might help trans youth speak for themselves instead. The goal was not to give trans youth a voicethey already have onebut rather to use our cis, adult privilege to make those voices louder.

We coordinated three weekend-long writing retreats for trans youth from across Canada at the University of Victoria and the Fairfield Gonzales Community Association, on the unceded traditional territories of the Lekwungen peoples, in Victoria, British Columbia. A team of all-trans adult mentorsranging from emerging to established artists, authors, activists and scholarsapplied to come and teach, while we and a team of volunteers tended to tender hearts and washed the dishes. The result of those retreats is this book, which is a humble addition to the growing body of work by and for trans youth.

This collection presents a spectrum of life experiences from trans youth under the age of 18. Their stories are told in art, poetry, fiction, memoir, letters and essays. Some of the stories might feel heavy, while others are lighthearted or even a bit silly. Some of them might introduce you to ideas youve never thought about before, while others might feel all too familiar. Some might even do all of the above! Throughout the chapters, we (Lindsay and Kate) ask questions that will help you reflect on the stories and draw connections to your own life, regardless of your gender identity . Each section concludes with a response by an adult scholar in transgender studies, offering tips and advice for what readers can do next. Theres also a list of books we love, organized by genre, so that readers of all ages and abilities can choose their own adventure in learning more about the themes from each chapter.

Not every reader will see their own experiences reflected back to them. Although theres a variety of young authors and artists in this book, they reflect a small part of the trans youth experience. In addition, most of the authors and artists are from Coast Salish territories in British Columbia, as that is where the program was located. Thankfully, this is not the final word on young trans life, either in Canada or elsewhere. Growing Up Trans: In Our Own Words is instead a modest first step in starting more conversations and telling more stories. Its a sample of some, but certainly not all, or even most, of the stories about what it might be like to grow up trans. Were optimistic that this is the beginning of many more published works by trans youth, and we invite readers to start dreaming up, drafting and diversifying version 2.0.

Enjoy.

Dr. Lindsay Herriot + Kate Fry

Growing Up Trans began as a one-year writing project that grew into the Trans Tipping Point and then became the Gender Generations Project, an ongoing intentional, intersectional and intergenerational collective. It puts all trans, nonbinary, Two-Spirit and otherwise non-cisgender youth in the fullness of all their identities at the center of the project. We welcome mentors, volunteers and their loved ones to build gender joy. Entirely trans-led and headquartered on unceded territories of the Lekwungen peoples, in Victoria, British Columbia, we offer free services, programming, and volunteer and paid-work opportunities year-round. Please visit gendergenerations.org for more information. The royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to the Gender Generations Project to further their work.

Do you have specific childhood memories of learning about or playing with gender? For example, do you remember any games or toys you were told you should or shouldnt play/play with because of your gender?

How do TV, movies and video games aimed at kids portray the differences between boys and girls (which is sometimes called the gender binary)? If you could make changes to the way gender is represented in the media, what would they be?

How can adults help shape the way kids think about gender?

Thats how it feels sometimes.

Somebody spun my cubes

And Im all mixed up.

Asa OConnor-Jaeckel

Asa OConnor-Jaeckel , age 13

Have you seen

Those childrens toys?

The ones at kids sections

In libraries

Or in daycares.

The ones with three cubes

On a vertical pole

That you can spin around.

On each side of the cube

Is the head, body or feet

Of a cartoon animal.

If you spin the cubes in

Different directions

You can get a mixed-up body

Of an animal.

The lines will match up

But the rest wont fit.

Thats how it feels sometimes.

Somebody spun my cubes

And Im all mixed up.

But the rest of me isnt on

Those cubes.

Christopher , age 17

The doctors office feels perfectly square

A cubic terrarium for one anomaly

When he leans forward and says to me,

Surely there mustve been signs.

I say, Surely there mustve been, sir,

But when I was an infant, I didnt know how to speak.

Funny how infants can be

And between all the gibberish and crying

(Though maybe I cried because I was so misaligned)

It was difficult to distinguish the babbling from the prophecy.

Surely there mustve been signs, sir,

When I clambered from the crib to the playground

And built a new identity out of sand and mismatched Legos.

Surely it was obvious: boy now, boy then.

But I was also a velociraptor

And a dragon tamer

And a space captain.

Surely there mustve been signs,

But when I wasnt out hunting outlaws

I was having tea parties with the plush cavalier

In an empire of rosy sheets and dollhouse furniture

Painting butterflies, humming lullabies

Not knowing that signs cancel out signs.

Sir, Im sure there were signs

Lost amongst these pink herrings

And Ill dig up each one if thats what it takes

But what better sign than me sitting here now?

And I cant help but wonder what difference it makes.

Lupus , age 14

This piece is dedicated to all those who could not be freed from their cage, and to the people strong enough to break through.

Have you ever heard of the video games The Sims 4 or IMVU(I Am Virtual You)? Well, they are both avatar gamesgames in which you create your own character. The best thing about these games is that your character can be anythingin the binary world of Male and Female. Do you ever see those GameofWar advertisements with the blond lady that has big breasts? What about GTA (Grand Theft Auto)