If I Was Your Girl

If I Was Your Girl tells the story of Amanda, who has switched schools for her final year of high school. She moves in with her father, who she hasn't seen in six years, and sets about trying to make it through her last year of school in small-town Alabama. She starts off with the intention of keeping her head down, just one more year to get through before she escape to college and a large, anonymous city. But as she starts to make friends, she starts to yearn for a normal life. But undercutting the newfound joy in her life is the fear that people will find out about her past.

You see, Amanda is trans. And she switched schools after a classmate's father put her in the hospital for daring to use the woman's restroom. There's a lot in this book. Amanda's conflicting desires to stay safe and have a normal high school experience. Her tentative attempts to restore relationship with her father. Her slow discovery that everyone around her has a secret and that even her small town is more diverse than she was expecting.

I cried a lot while I was reading this book. But there were more happy tears than sad ones. The author says she took certain liberties to make this story as accessible as possible. Amanda passes easily and has access to hormones and surgery at an earlier than normal age. She comes up against any number of obstacles, but her ability to live in her body as she wants to isn't really one of those. And that lets the author focus on the story, on Amanda's truth, on building empathy. It's an idealized story, but an important one, a good entry point for people new to engaging with trans people. This is definitely a book that should be in every high school library.

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