Trans and Gender Diverse Teen Resilience Guide
Jayme L Peta, Deb Coolhart, and Rylan Jay Testa
New Harbinger Press
Published May 1, 2025
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads
About Trans and Gender Diverse Teen Resilience Guide
A teen-friendly guide to help you embrace your identity, build resilience, and thrive.
As a transgender or nonbinary teen, you may sometimes feel like you are alone. The world can be a scary, unkind place, and if you’re struggling to find support, you may be tempted to lose hope. But it’s important for you to know that there are other teens out there just like you—as well as a whole community of folks who have been where you are now, and who are thriving as adults. Finding hope, happiness, and community takes time. In the meantime, this compassionate guide can help.
Written just for trans and nonbinary (TGNB) youth, this book offers trauma-informed skills to help you embrace who you are, give and find support in community, and thrive. You’ll discover tools to help you manage intense emotions and stress, cultivate self-compassion, prioritize self-care, and create communities of support. Finally, you’ll learn how to focus on creating the life you want to live, in a positive community of others.
When faced with life’s challenges, it’s vital to remember that you are not alone, and you deserve to be happy, safe, and loved. No matter what. This book can help support you as you navigate the world and discover all the wonders that make you you.
My Review
I read this book as a part of expanding my knowledge as an ally, and even though the content isn’t directed at me, there are lots of ways in which it still applied. So, that was a nice bonus.
The book helps readers thoughtfully develop self-care habits and routines. It’s packed with solid, tried-and-true information explained clearly and gently. I love that the suggestions include practical steps for how to navigate relationships with unsupportive versus supportive people.
The book includes journal prompts and encourages readers to dance or exercise or get outside in nature to help manage anxiety and other difficult emotions.
The only thing I wish was different about the book is the way it’s organized. Though it’s pretty short– I think the whole book is only 122 pages– it’s only broken up into seven chapters. The text is broken up by bold subheadings. Each chapter ends with a bulleted list of “takeaway” ideas.
I think breaking up the text with dialogue boxes or separating out the journal prompts (or repeating them at the end of the chapter) would make the book easier to use. It’s possible that the final version has better formatting– I just read an electronic ARC (advanced review copy) that I got on NetGalley.
As a person connected to a couple of people who are trans and/or gender diverse, I found the book helpful, too. I learned some things about internalized transphobia that weren’t obvious to me before. It also helped to sit with information about the experience of being trans or gender diverse.
I’ll be reviewing another book shortly on gender identity called The Gender Binary is a Big Lie, and I’m interested to see if there are ways in which the two books overlap.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content
References to dating relationships.
Spiritual Content
Briefly encourages mindfulness practices.
Violent Content
Vague references to bullying.
Drug Content
None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.