In Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family, author Amy Ellis Nutt eloquently and beautifully tells the story of identical twins Nicole and Jonas Maines. She describes this incredible family’s challenges, struggles, accomplishments, and transformations as they experience their daughter’s gender expression and later transition.
Although she was assigned male at birth, Nicole — and her brother — always understood that she was a girl. As Nicole’s identical brother Jonas says, “I never had a brother. You were always a sister to me.” After experiencing extensive bullying, unequal treatment, and inaction by both peers and faculty at her elementary and middle schools, Nicole and her family were forced to move to Portland. The family became political and social trailblazers in trans* activism and justice in Maine and throughout the country.
This is a stunning book that calls attention to the pressures and struggles that trans* people are forced to deal with in our society and how powerful the love, understanding, and acceptance by family and friends truly is.
Cover image courtesy of Shutterstock.
comments