It Gets Better . . . Except When It Gets Worse
And Other Unsolicited Truths I Wish Someone Had Told Me
1 of 1 copy available
Nicole Maines knows a little something about “happily ever after”—not just because she’s a self-professed expert in the Disney princess canon, but because she’s lived it. After coming out at an early age, her family had not only to educate themselves, but also those around them as they fought and won a landmark court case in the state of Maine before she graduated high school. She made it into college, got the guy, and finally had The Surgery™. She achieved her lifelong goal of becoming an actress when she landed a major role in the CW’s Supergirl, playing television’s very first live-action transgender superhero.
Cue sappy music and sunsets, because we’ve got ourselves a happy ending, right?
Ha! As if.
For the first time, in her own words, Nicole tells the story of her journey from childhood in rural Maine to the spotlights of Hollywood, sharing the lessons she’s learned along the way. With clever wit and unflinching honesty, she tackles some of the most insidious messaging absorbed by queer kids and all young women, from the idea that any one thing can (or should) ever really “fix” you, to wondering what’s wrong with you when things don’t always feel better, and reminding us that, sometimes, a happy ending is only the beginning of the story.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 15, 2024 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780593243138
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780593243138
- File size: 1938 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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September 15, 2024
Maines knew from early childhood that she was meant to be a girl. In elementary school, she began to present as female in public. However, when her school refused to deal with harassment from another student, her family filed a lawsuit that eventually made the state of Maine the first to protect transgender people's rights to use the bathrooms that match their identity. The family's journey was chronicled in the book Becoming Nicole (2015), by Amy Ellis Nutt. Despite the positive arc of that book, though, Maines' life was not a perfect climb from trauma to acceptance. This memoir describes the author's experience of weathering the upheavals of her childhood and getting her first acting roles. With a bright, captivating voice that draws readers in, she discusses the challenges of being a public figure so young and the pressure to be a perfect trans woman. Later chapters drift in focus to touch on fandom and comics. Maines succeeds in showing that it's okay not to have all the answers in her refreshing and timely memoir.COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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September 15, 2024
A young transgender woman tells of her fight against bigotry and misogyny. Maines "came out as trans when I was three years old," realizing her "boy-body felt wrong to me." By age 10, she had socially transitioned--no longer Wyatt, now Nicole. She was the anonymous plaintiff in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court case in which the court ruled that her school district could not deny her access to a female bathroom for being transgender. Maines was also the subject of the bestsellerBecoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family (2015), "about my parents learning how to raise a trans child, especially my dad, who was cast as having the story's 'biggest transformation of all'": from NRA conservative to trans advocate and motivational speaker. During the course of her life story, we learn about the trauma and eventual resolution of her gender reassignment surgery, her being cast as TV's first trans superhero on the CW'sSupergirl (2018), and her finding roles as actress, activist, and comic book creator. Maines attests that she did not bend her experience to fit an arbitrary inspirational story arc, but her singular voice powers the book; she is open and humorous and a bit sly. She claims to be "just one plaintive voice, begging people not to be bigots and homophobes," but she sells herself a bit short. Readers learn about the value of puberty blockers, how a gender-segregated bathroom becomes "the site of potential, and likely, panic," and how Hans Christian Andersen'sThe Little Mermaid might be the story of a girl born into the wrong body, "a positive picture of what transition could mean." This is the memoir of a still young and confident woman, with more accomplishments yet to come. A proud transgender woman is "loved and wanted as I was."COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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