Customer Reviews

Mom, I Need To Be A Girl

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book, written by the single mother of a Transsexual teen-ager, is a true account of their experiences wending their way through the morass of roadblocks and confusion in seeking approval for the son to become the daughter she had always been meant to be. It describes clearly the troubles that the "system" deliver to maintain the status-quo, and the overwhelming drive needed by both the child and the parent in overcoming these burdens and achieving success. This should be required reading for any parent of a Transgendered person. The writing style is easy and familiar and will make for a "quick read" ; one you won't want to put down.

As usual, any story that tells of the way a transsexual SHOULD transition - with the support of a mother or other family member, makes me so jealous that I cry.

Just Evelyn did a great job. I am a m-f transsexual at the age of 14. So I hope my mom can accept me the same way and will defenetly give this book to my mom when I come out. All parents and transsexuals should read this book.

I am a male-to-female transsexual. Evelyn's response to her daughter is heart-warming, especially for those of us whose Mom had just the opposite reaction and now are dealing with being transsexual later in life. Well done Evelyn. Danielle is blessed to have a Mom like you.

I am a M-F Transsexual. I wish that this book had been around when I was Danielle's age then I could have shown my parents. I would have saved me a lot of pain and anguish. Danielle is a very lucky girl to have a Mom like hers.

This out of print book is written by the mother of a young transsexual. Highly readable, it is the heartwarming account of how Evelyn helped her new daughter, Danielle, negotiate her way through the various social institutions in the USA. The book contains useful advice for parents and transgendered children on how to deal with family, schools, the medical profession, and day to day life. Evelyn wisely advises: "Let your teen make the decisions about his or her life whenever possible. Keep a sense of humour and use lots of hugging." She also notes that if transgendered kids see themselves as "brave and proud" others are less likely to view them as outcasts.

Although Amazon.com seems to have placed this book in the Children's Section, it is definitely NOT a child's book. Written in a language that any high school student should be able to comprehend completely, it is primarily a book for the parent of a transsexual child to read. It chronicles the extreme difficulties faced by a single mother of a transsexual teenage boy transitioning to womanhood. The reader will quickly become angered at the politics which come into play at the local level and at the incompetence rampant within the medical establishment, particularly in the psychiatric arena where so-called experts, who seem to have little knowledge of the issues involved, don't blink an eye at charging exhorbitant fees for their incompetent services and advice.

This book is a MUST READ for every adult with a transsexual child. I firmly believe there should be a copy in every public library, and it should be on the bookshelf of every counsellor, psychiatrist and psychologist.

This book chronicles the problems faced by the single mother of a transsexual male child. The anguish, the heartache and the unnecessary turmoil, through which mother and child are forced to endure, caused by society at large and the professional medical establishment, makes compelling reading. Just because this outstanding work is written in language easily understandable by any high school level teenager, don't make the mistake that it is a child's book.

Highly recommended for all who are facing the same life story, as well as for those who counsel and provide professional 'advice' to those having to deal with a transssexual life. Every public library should have a copy as should every professional dealing with the phenomenon of transsexuality.

The top featured reviewer of this book on Amazon at the time of my writing this was wrong, this book is very definitely correctly rated by Amazon as normally suited for children of nine and upwards, and younger in exceptional circumstances. It is also suited for, and most definitely not beneath, parents, teachers, and other caring professionals who might deal with with transsexual children or are interested in the rights and treatment of minorities.

Although the book is now long out of print some copies do get offered for resale and are worth securing for key libraries and collections. The author has also, for the sake of those who need the information, need to know, permitted the book to be made available on the Internet, for free, but without the photographs. For which there is a reason - the privacy of her daughter.

The book is real, rather than "heart-warming", although the outcome is good, candidly telling the problems, mostly with "caring professions", the family faced and largely overcame. Unfortunately many of those problems might still be the same today in many locations, eight years on from the date of publication, unless the right connections can be accessed, the wrong people avoided. But in some locations, with the right information, things can be rather better.

Some prescribers will intervene in time to prevent a child having to face the painful and prolonged facial hair removal detailed, or the pubertal drop of the voice, excess height, excess foot size, etc., that might have been suffered (or breast growth and menstruation in the case of transsexual boys). The best surgeons will now accept 16-year-olds for surgery if both parents agree, and there is utterly convincing evidence that the child has been living, including with the appropriate hormonal regime, as the sex of identity for a substantial time. In other words that the child absolutely needs and desires the surgery, has full support, and the surgeon's legal position is secure. Thus the tortured and exploitative need the family in the book suffered, trying to collect, as a "qualification", letters from a succession of "mental health professionals" who had no experience or ability in the field but basically wanted the fees and took advantage of the chance to project their uninformed opinions and prejudices upon the child and their family, can be avoided. Which is not to say there are no able and supportive professionals.

In a few countries public health services will handle the entire path, although none yet do it perfectly, entirely without anxiety or an approach of "testing" the child, as opposed to acceptance of their core and unchangeable identity, which is supposed to be every child's right.

No one should be astonished at this. Such children have been documented at least back to Roman times, and in many cultures. It is supported by some religions whilst being cruelly condemned by others. It is clearly a natural phenomenon.

So the book should be taken as a warning as well as an example, a very real and true example, indeed an historical record, of how a case of transsexuality (note: NOT transgender, this child was, from first asking her mother for help, always clear of her need to be physically female, and considerable effort and devotion was expended in securing the necessary surgery) can be experienced, treated, and survived. A very important and valuable book.

Evelyn,you have done a good job.I will support you.Actually,I am a male but I want to be a female.I want to go for sex change operation.I am 19 this year.In Hong Kong, sex change can only be done at the age of 21.So, I am going towait for 2 more years.I know more about Sex change.Thanks For Your Book!