This book, “My Trans Teen Misadventure for Children. WTF???

[TheWorldisGoingMad]

I know this post may offend and I'm sorry if it does. But I feel children need to be protected. If parents don't know what books may be in their school libraries, how do they counteract the information?

This book, “My Trans Teen Misadventure,” has been nominated for UK bookseller Waterstones Children’s Book Prize of 2023.

AIBU to think this is a dangerous book for children's mental health and body image. I find it seriously worrying that children have access to books like this from an early age. I feel sends a message to vulnerable girls that the answer to dis-ease in their bodies is irreversible medication and surgery.

So so dangerous. I have a niece who is 12 now and has said she wanted to be a boy since the age of 10. She has been through mental health agony with her battle with herself and her body. She is now a girl again - but her MH is fragile (suicide threats, won't wash because she can't bare to look at her body, won't attend school). She has ADHD which I think has added to her feelings - that along with puberty and questioning sexuality can be an enormously hard time. A book like this is wrong on so many levels. I am aghast at Waterstones, it's so wrong for children to be exposed to this sort of thing when they are so mixed up.

Widely discussed here a couple of weeks ago if you do a search OP 😊

I’m so sick of this shit being pushed on kids. It’s grooming FFS.

Nothing like taking something out of context is there? Maybe try reading the whole book and not just looking at one page you saw on Twitter.

This is like the kid who read an Alice Oseman book featuring two gay teenagers in the school library. He reported that the school librarian had offered him the "graphic version". She'd actually offered him a graphic novel (aka comic) by the same author, and claimed the whole thing was pornography. Music to the ears of right wing American book burners. Trouble is it's not remotely pornographic...

What context would make it ok to refer to breasts as ‘fatty lumps that need to be removed’ and then aim that message at young girls? I can’t think of any.

Eek that image is quite powerful isn't it. I haven't read the book though so imagine there's context?

I haven't read this particular book in full myself, but it's the memoirs of a transman's teen years. I can only assume that that's how he felt at the time.

Waterstones (who shortlisted it in the older readers category) recommend it for ages 14+. Teenagers of that age should be entirely capable of reading a story about someone else's experiences while being able to separate it from their own life path. Reading a book about growing up trans doesn't make people become trans any more than watching a film about gay people makes you gay, or reading a book about eating disorders makes you anorexic.

The OP's put an entirely misleading book title. The actual book title does not mention children. It's "Welcome to St Hell: My Trans Teen Misadventure" (St Hell appears to be a reference to a school name) which leads me to strongly believe they haven't actually read the book themselves.

Why not go the whole hog and remove the twee drawings and replace them with inviting images of mastectomy and phalloplasty scars.

Suspect that would stop the grooming of children into gender ideology dead in its tracks.

Well I think the “transman” should be very well aware of the discomfort many teenage girls feel about their bodies and that writing a book that reinforces that message and then marketing it at them, is irresponsible at best.

Why not go the whole hog and remove the twee drawings

Cos it's a comic

It's agreeing with children who hate their bodies. I want no part in that

Yup total misunderstanding and the wrong title of the book!
It is an excellent book and clearly not aimed at young teenagers.

No shit.

A pro-ana book would never been published. This book is unsuitable for children.

So so sad for young people these days. What kind of messed up ideology promotes life long medication and mutilating surgery as the ideal?

And yes mutilation is what Sir Robert Winston called it. And as he said on Question Time, mutilation of this nature still does not change their sex.

Dark times indeed.

So now do we get “adventures in anorexia” and “my self harm shenanigans” If it’s ok to promote self harm in the name of gender, surely it’s ok to promote it in other contexts? This book also refers to puberty blockers as reversible and safe. So spreading false info to vulnerable teens. If teens are not vulnerable to divide vibration and self harm, why are pro anorexia and pro suicide sites blocked worldwide?

Of course we get teen aka young adult books about self harm and eating disorders.

Here's a sample of 162 young adult fiction books about eating disorders
www.goodreads.com/list/show/2140.YA_Eating_Disorder_Fiction

And 304 young adult fiction books about self harm, suicide and depression
www.goodreads.com/list/show/13907.YA_Books_About_Mentioning_Depression_Self_Harm_And_Suicide

Again, if your teen decides to implement something in their own lives just because they've seen it in the media, you've got bigger problems.

Clearly you have some strong views on what other people should be allowed to do with their bodies.

What you're actually whining about is teens being exposed to ideas and views you disagree with. It isn't a good look.

So how many of those books tell teens that taking powerful drugs and getting surgery are good things, do those books about eating disorders tell the readers how to get liposuction and diet pills? If they did would that be ok with you? Are those books telling children that affirming their dysphoria will make their lives better?

That book tells teens puberty blockers are harmless and reversible. We all know this is not true. so would you let your anorexic teen read a book telling them liposuction and dirt pills are harmless and will make their lives better? If not, why not?

Do you know what? As a self-harming teenager reading that I wasn't a total freak was actually quite helpful.
This is aimed at 14+ it's totally appropriate. If you don't like it, don't buy it. It is however, fantastically written and deserves its nomination.
I won't be recommending it to my KS3 students but I will to KS4 and 5.
As it happens Heartstopper deals with eating disorders and self harm.
This book shouldn't be judged on the basis of one page.

Exactly. Many young people especially girls hate their bodies, their face, nose. I doubt this book would prompt someone without gender dysphoria to have their breasts surgically removed. Much like reading a book about being a lesbian would 'turn you gay'.
If teens are not vulnerable to divide vibration and self harm, why are pro anorexia and pro suicide sites blocked worldwide?
Because being transgender isn't seen as a dangerous disease maybe ?

The picture shows a normal teenage girl’s body.
Most teen girls go through a phase of hating the changes they have gone through/are going through, particularly if they also happen to be autistic, have been sexually abused, or are mentally ill.
The book is showing girls it’s fine and normal to hate your body so much you want to chop bits off, and that yay, you can actually go ahead and do it now.
In what world is this ok? I can’t imagine any context - apart from begrudgingly accepting that the author is out to make money and share a self obsessed attention seeking tome - where this is ok to show teenagers?
Presumably those who seek it out to read are the very ones who should be protected from it.

Why not to your ks3 students @GrammarTeacher surely if it’s such an excellent, harmless book, they’d be just at the right age to read it? They’d be just at the age for puberty blockers, which are harmless and reversible according to this “excellent” book. I mean gastric bands are reversible so why don’t we have books promoting those to teenagers?

This is just one page. Here are a few more.

Puberty blockers aren't a pause. Testosterone causes vaginal atrophy and together they cause infertility.

I would be appalled if a teacher recommended this book to children. It's propaganda.

@Happylittlechicken for exactly the same reason as I don't teach The Bell Jar at KS3 nor do I teach Hamlet. But this thread isn't really about discussing the book is it?
People here think there should be no trans people in books for young people.

Any yes to whoever said a pro-ana book would never be published.
Girls can and do fully recover from eating disorders, with support to learn to accept themselves.
A girl who has undergone puberty blockers and surgery may well have life changing consequences which cannot be reversed. Treatment should be support to accept themselves, not medicate and butcher them to fit some bizarre dogmatic belief. What in the medical model hell are we allowing?