American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era

Written by Nico Lang

Narrated by Nico Lang

From an award-winning journalist comes a vivid and moving portrait of eight
trans and nonbinary teenagers across the country, following their daily
triumphs, struggles, and all that encompasses growing up trans in America
today.
Media coverage tends to sensationalize the fight over how trans kids should be
allowed to live, but what is incredibly rare are the voices of the people at the
heart of this debate: transgender and gender nonconforming kids themselves. For
their groundbreaking new book, journalist Nico Lang spent a year traveling the
country to document the lives of transgender, nonbinary, and genderfluid teens
and their families.
From the tip of Florida’s conservative panhandle to vibrant queer communities in
California, and from Texas churches to mosques in Illinois, American Teenager
gives readers a window into the lives of Wyatt, Rhydian, Mykah, Clint, Ruby,
Augie, Jack, and Kylie, eight teens who, despite what some lawmakers might want
us to believe, are truly just kids looking for a brighter future. Drawing on hundreds
of hours of on-the-ground interviews with them and the people in their
communities, American Teenager paints a vivid portrait of what it’s actually like to
grow up trans today.
“With humor and compassion, Lang shows trans teenagers as they really are: kids
trying their best, day by day, to grow into their truest selves and fullest
potential.”—Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer: A Memoir
Author Bio
© Print Copyright
©2024 by Nico Lang
? Audio Copyright
?2024 by Recorded Books
Cover Design
Cover design by Eli Mock
Artwork Credits
Cover art by Pace Taylor
Arrangement
Recorded by arrangement with Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Genre/Age
ISBNs
C09231 5065723 9798892745406 American Teenager
Z21485 5065723 9798892745512 American Teenager
DG17688 5065723 9798892745628 American Teenager
Images
Insert cover JPG and cover PDF here
American Teenager
Title
American Teenager
Subtitle
How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era
Series
Author
Nico Lang
Narrator
Vico Ortiz
Copy
From an award-winning journalist comes a vivid and moving portrait of eight
trans and nonbinary teenagers across the country, following their daily
triumphs, struggles, and all that encompasses growing up trans in America
today.
Media coverage tends to sensationalize the fight over how trans kids should be
allowed to live, but what is incredibly rare are the voices of the people at the
heart of this debate: transgender and gender nonconforming kids themselves. For
their groundbreaking new book, journalist Nico Lang spent a year traveling the
country to document the lives of transgender, nonbinary, and genderfluid teens
and their families.
From the tip of Florida’s conservative panhandle to vibrant queer communities in
California, and from Texas churches to mosques in Illinois, American Teenager
gives readers a window into the lives of Wyatt, Rhydian, Mykah, Clint, Ruby,
Augie, Jack, and Kylie, eight teens who, despite what some lawmakers might want
us to believe, are truly just kids looking for a brighter future. Drawing on hundreds
of hours of on-the-ground interviews with them and the people in their
communities, American Teenager paints a vivid portrait of what it’s actually like to
grow up trans today.
“With humor and compassion, Lang shows trans teenagers as they really are: kids
trying their best, day by day, to grow into their truest selves and fullest
potential.”—Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer: A Memoir

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9798892745628

Reviews for American Teenager

[bell7_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

From September 2022 to June 2023, journalist Nico Lang traveled the United States and interviewed seven families with eight trans kids: Wyatt, Rhydian, Mykah, Ruby, Clint, Augie, Jack, and Kylie. The teens were generally juniors and seniors in high school and lived all over the country, from states like Texas and Florida where laws about gender-affirming care are very strict to more liberal ones like California, and a few more in the South and Midwest.

Each chapter profiles these teens, and Lang does a phenomenal job of highlighting the diversity of their experiences, including families who are white, Black, Asian American, privileged and poor. Lang writes with empathy for each one of these kids and puts a human face on what our current political sphere treats as a problem or talking point. The notes, including many articles written by Lang and others, highlight laws that have been passed over the last few years in several states on bathrooms, sports, hormones, and - in Texas - saying that parents' affirming their child's trans identity is child abuse. This book is a cry to step away from the rhetoric and consider the actual people being affected by these laws: young people who want to go to prom and have relationships and simply be without fear.

[johanna.florez21 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thank you to Shelf Awareness Pro and Abrams Books for the free ARC.
This slice-of-life book was both easy and hard to read. No individual chapter took long for me to get through, but some chapters really troubled me and made me re-read them before moving forward.
For readers who already recognize the humanity of trans youth, I find this useful for expanding sensitivity to a broader spectrum of trans kids. Not a masculine/feminine spectrum, but rather the kids stress-puking at every legislative cycle and those who really don't care that they're trans. I had ideas of how to support trans kids somewhere between those two positions and I feel slightly better equipped if I work with any of the more extreme ends.
For any reader who's coming in with another perspective, I fear that the realistic writing and the "just like other kids" thesis might reinforce the notion that gender nonconformity is just a phase. Teenagers do a lot of poorly-thought-out things, as evidenced within this book by many of the interactions with friends, family, schoolwork, etc. This book would not convince anyone that teenagers have the wisdom to determine their own gender identity. That's probably not the goal, it's just something that struck me.