Representation Matters Now More Than Ever

Children’s publishing as a field is responsive to sociocultural shifts, particularly in terms of what is of interest to children and their lived experiences. As more children are recognized as transgender and nonbinary, and as rainbow families become less stigmatized within various societies and cultures, children’s publishing has become more open to the possibilities for stories that represent the experiences of these children and their families. Within the history of LGBTQ+ children’s stories, however, the majority can be split into two streams: those stories about children with gay or lesbian parents, and those about transgender and nonconforming children. There are very few existing books that look to the experiences of transgender and/or nonbinary parents. This chapter will explore the few existing texts that do present transgender and nonbinary parents, exploring the use of gendered language and reliance on a gender binary. Is this a useful narrative construct for children to understand trans and nonbinary identities? Is it reductive and problematic in the long term? These and other guiding questions can help create a productive discussion of possibilities for understanding current and looking toward future representation in children’s literature.