I Am J

                              I Am J  by Cris Beam tells a story about an 18 year old who is transitioning from girl to boy. Throughout the story you see issues and problems J faces that teens can relate to transgender or not. But transgender teens can still relate to this story. J deals with the use of wrong pronouns and testosterone shots as well as family issues which includes kicking him out.

                          I believe many teenagers can relate to this book because J struggles to find himself and I think many teens go through this whether it be something big like sexual orientation and gender identity, like what J is struggling with, to finding what you want to make of yourself or the crowd you want to surround yourself with. In the book J states "If there wasn't a word for male and female, would everyone just be a person?" and I believe many teenagers have thought about this except with things they struggle with or are insecure about like body image, appearance, home life, income, etc. J also develops crushes like almost every other teenager. It's a common thing so many teens can relate to the feeling of admiring someone romantically or platonically and worrying about if they feel the same and sometimes not being yourself. J also deals with discrimination. He was kicked out of his house because his father couldn't accept that his daughter was now his son and some teens can relate to discrimination in general, not just the way J had dealt with it. From being discriminated against because of race, to gender, to sexual orientation, to income, etc. every teen has been discriminated against in one way or another like J.


                           In conclusion, I thought that this book was very well written. It showed struggles that trans teens go through as well as any teen has experienced. It shined a light on the issues that trans teens go through but also was able to be relatable to teens like me.