"What if this book were around when we were kids?"
March 12, 2019 4:49 AM   Subscribe

In 2014, frustrated by the lack of trans-inclusive kids' books, Shauna Gordon-McKeon wrote Super Princess Saves the Night, a book about a tiny trans/gender nonconforming superhero. After receiving "a bunch of nice form rejection letters" from publishers, Gordon-McKeon teamed up with illustrator Elena Popova and self-published, with all profits going to the Trans Women of Color Collective. Gordon-McKeon and TWOCC Executive Director Lourdes Ashley Hunter share more in an interview with Humanist Edge.
posted by duffell (5 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is adorable.

When I was a kid I had books about girls who were tomboys, but in the end they always took an interest in boys and started performing femininity, and for me as a kid this was a crushing, soul-destroying ending.

With the recent spate of queer tv (Steven Universe, She-Ra, Sense8...) my friends and I spend a substantial amount of time on the question of "what if this had been around when we were kids" and how we've managed to get things dialed back from total erasure to merely heavy erasure and how much difference just that has made for us. I don't think I'll live to see full inclusion, but who knows?
posted by bile and syntax at 6:06 AM on March 12, 2019 [13 favorites]


Thanks for posting. New book for the toddler!
posted by PistachioRoux at 6:46 AM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]


That last page when the whole family is dressed as Super Princess!

đź’ś
posted by Emmy Rae at 7:47 AM on March 12, 2019 [4 favorites]


This weekend, I was a groomsman in a wedding of a cis-het couple. During the reception afterward, a gay couple in attendance was dancing with the rest of the group. During the “Anniversary Dance” the emcee called out increasing numbers, and couples who had been married for less than that time return to their seats.* The gay couple stayed on the floor until 15 was called. Fourteen years as a couple!

All I could do was marvel at the sight, and the thought struck me: how different would my life have been if, when I was a child, I’d seen such role models at the weddings and birthday parties and funerals and all the other rites of passage and life celebrations I’d seen. How life-affirming to see yourself mirrored in the joy and celebration of those around you!

Great to see that the next generation will be affirmed by having this book as part of a more inclusive society.


*The winners had been married for 59 years!
posted by darkstar at 9:30 AM on March 12, 2019 [7 favorites]


Oh hey that's me! I've always wanted to be MeFi's Own and I almost missed it.

If you like Super Princess you will probably also like Julian is a Mermaid. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas's Healing Fictions is a great source of kid and YA lit that's diverse across many axes. And Flamingo Rampant is a small press that regularly puts out "feminist, racially-diverse, LGBTQ positive children’s books."
posted by galaxy rise at 7:27 AM on March 13, 2019 [6 favorites]


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