George

So kind and so crucial. I want to buy fifty copies of this book for every single elementary school library in this country.

George is a girl. She was born with the parts of a boy, but she knows she's supposed to be a girl - wearing skirts, playing with makeup, giggling with girlfriends, and definitely not using the boys bathroom at school. What George doesn't know is how to tell her mom, her brother, her best friend Kelly, her teachers.

An opportunity. The school play. George desperately wants the role of the wise and beautiful spider in Charlotte's Web. And Kelly encourages her to audition for the part.

“I think you've got a great idea... Ms. Udell will love that you care so much about the character that you want to play her onstage, even though she's a girl and you're a boy. Plays are all about pretending, right?”

“Um...” was all George could say. Playing a girl part wouldn't really be pretending, but George didn't know how to tell Kelly that.

“They're jerks,” said Kelly. “You're not a girl.”

“What if I am?” George was startled by her own words.

Kelly drew back in surprise. “What? That's ridiculous. You're a boy. I mean” – she pointed vaguely downward at George – “you have a you-know-what, right?”

“Yeah, but...” George trailed off and looked at the ground. She kicked a small rock that skipped into a tuft of grass. She didn't feel like a boy.

“George, I don't want to find you wearing my clothes. Or my shoes. That kind of thing was cute when you were three. You're not three anymore. In fact, I don't want to see you in my room at all.”