The recent buzz surrounding Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover sheds some light to the issues concerning the issues on transgenderism. In the past years, being transgender has been a taboo topic in mainstream media, but more and more opportunities have opened for transgender people to share their stories, and children's literature is one of them, writes The New York Times.
What can we learn from the stories of these young people? Here are five things to know about transgender children's books which are mostly written by transgender authors.
Trans author Sam Martin says that looking at other people who are also transgender made him feel better about himself. "My goal was to write stories that would have helped me feel less alone at that age," Martin told The New York Times.
Arin Andrews, a teenaged transgender who has written his own memoir, says, "I wanted to write a book to help others because there were not a lot of sources out there, and I thought that one book could save a person's life."
Major publishing companies have released transgender children's books.
Mainstream publishers such as Scholastic, Simon and Schuster, Disney Hyperion, have already picked up and published titles under the emerging literature. Scholastic Vice President David Levithan says that the sudden interest in the topic suggest that "our culture is starting to acknowledge transgender people and acknowledge that they are part of the fabric of who we are, literature is reflecting that."
The books shed some positive light on the issue.
Our culture could be very difficult for transgender children to feel positive about themselves. Few books have been published about the issue, and according to Kim Pearson, co-founder of TransYouth Family Allies says that these books are "really important" to make the children's experiences less daunting, he told Today.
The stories are not only for trans children. These books teach more than what being transgender is all about. Sharing the books about transgender children to non-trans children foster acceptance and empathy, and talks about what it like to be one's self. Parenting expert Dr. Deborah Gilboa told Today that reading about trans children "is going to be helpful in making a more tolerant child."
The books can help children see beyond gender. Carolyn Mackler, a novelist, picked up the book ,"George," about a young boy struggling with his gender identity, shared the book with her ten-year-old son. She asked if he would be willing to befriend George if he met him, to which her son replied, "Mom, it's her, and I would be friends with her if she was nice." Mackler told The New York Times.