Rethinking Normal

A Memoir in Transition

Katie Rain Hill

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN:
  9781481418256
• Print ISBN:
  9781481418249

In her unique, generous, and affecting voice, nineteen-year-old Katie Rain Hill shares her personal journey of undergoing gender reassignment. Now with a reading group guide!

Katie Rain Hill realized very young that a serious mistake had been made; she was a girl who had been born in the body of a boy. Suffocating under her peers’ bullying and the mounting pressure to be “normal,” Katie tried to take her life at the age of eight years old. After several other failed attempts, she finally understood that “Katie”—the girl trapped within her—was determined to live.

In this first-person account, Katie reflects on her pain-filled childhood and the events leading up to the life-changing decision to undergo gender reassignment as a teenager. She reveals the unique challenges she faced while unlearning how to be a boy and shares what it was like to navigate the dating world—and experience heartbreak for the first time—in a body that matched her gender identity.

Told in an unwaveringly honest voice, Rethinking Normal is a coming-of-age story about transcending physical appearances and redefining the parameters of “normalcy” to embody one’s true self.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Prologue: I Hate Flies
• 1. Blueberry Blue
• 2. Welcome to TU!
• 3. The Arin Jig
• 4. “Oh My God, There’s a Transgender Person at Our School”
• 5. There’s a Kid in There
• 6. Silver Palms
• 7. Far from Okay in Okay
• 8. Immortal Blood
• 9. The Magic Word
• 10. The List
• 11. The Other Guys
• 12. “Go, Spartans!”
• 13. Family of Five
• 14. The Biggest News
• 15. Rainbow Beads, Cap and Gown, and a Neovagina
• 16. Creating Change
• 17. Mr. Sandman
• 18. Pause for Dramatic Effect
• 19. Beyond
• Epilogue: Bear Peak
• Acknowledgments
• Tips For Talking To Transgender People
• Illustrator’s Note
• Resources
• About Katie Rain Hill
• Copyright