 wonderful book
i remember being a pre-teen, leafing through many books written for young women that followed an "our bodies ourselves" format. these books were ok, but never what i was really looking for. i didn't want information on how to ask boys to dance or how to apply lipstick- i wondered where the chapters entitled "when you don't feel like the rest or the girls" or "but what if i don't like boys?" were. what a great help it would have been to have this book! the format is "hip" but not patronizing. while this book affirms the importance of pride and self-respect in queer or questioning young people, it also devotes pages to the concerns and dangers many queer teens face (safe sex, how to begin dating, facing intolerance). transgender issues and stories have their own chapter, as do homophobia and coming out. descriptive paragraphs are broken up by small autobiographical blurbs by young people describing their experiences with the topic at hand, and by smaller essays. this book is a great place to begin for youth who are GLBTQ, questioning, or who would like to better understand their queer peers and friends.
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