The Gender Creative Child

By Diane Ehrensaft, PhD. Experiment, 2016.

Because I think the antidote to fear is both love and understanding, I think this is a great book for people to be requesting from the library or ordering right now. It is a thoughtful, research-packed book that is also deeply personal and packed with years of clinical wisdom. If you have questions, or a lack of understanding, or a deep desire to support children and youth in your life, this is a great book to help you ground yourself in what years of wisdom gathered from the front-lines of gender affirming care has to tell us.

Core to this book is the idea that childhood is a time to try on and explore ideas about the self and the world. The more children are met with kindness, support, and understanding as they do so, the greater the likelihood is that the version of themselves that the bring into adulthood and show to the world will be a true reflection of who they truly are. So how can parents, educators, therapists, paediatricians be who these children need them to be? By arming themselves with facts, and unpacking their own beliefs safely away from the children who have been entrusted to their care, and meeting every child where they are with curiosity and care.

To find out more about Diane Ehrensaft, PhD, her clinical background and her work, click here. Once you've found out more about her, if you would like to track down her book, I urge you to support your local independent bookstore if you can.