A Girlhood, Carolyn Hays
A Girlhood, Carolyn Hays
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

A Girlhood
A Letter to My Transgender Daughter

Author: Carolyn Hays

Narrator: Erin Bennett

Unabridged: 10 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/13/2022

Synopsis

A parent’s love letter to a daughter who has always known exactly who she is.One ordinary day, a caseworker from the Department of Children and Families knocked on the Hays family’s door to investigate an anonymous complaint about the upbringing of their transgender child. It was this knock, this threat, that began the family’s journey out of the Bible Belt but never far from the hate and fear resting at the nation’s core. Self-aware and intimate, A Girlhood asks us all to love better, not just for the sake of Hays’s child but for children everywhere enduring injustice and prejudice just as they begin to understand themselves. A Girlhood is a call to action, an ode to community, a plea for empathy, a hope for a better future. A Girlhood is a love letter to a child who has always known exactly who she is—and who is waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.

About Carolyn Hays

Carolyn Hays is an award-winning, critically acclaimed, bestselling author who has chosen to publish A Girlhood: Letter to My Transgender Daughter under a pen name to protect the privacy of her family. Her novels have been published by Hachette, Simon and Schuster, and HarperCollins and have been listed as New York Times Notable Books and Kirkus’s Best Fiction of the Year. She’s also written for National Public Radio and the Washington Post.

About Erin Bennett

Erin Bennett is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and a stage actress who played Carlie Roberts in the BBC radio drama Torchwood: Submission. She can be heard on several video games. Regional theater appearances include the Intiman, Pasadena Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company, A Noise Within, Laguna Playhouse, and the Getty Villa. She trained at Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jessica on November 15, 2022

Let me start by saying who I think this book is actually for. It is for parents trying to understand how to raise a trans child with support and love and acceptance. That is certainly something that we need, as the biggest threats to many trans kids are their own parents. Thankfully we have reached......more

Goodreads review by Kendra on June 15, 2022

While I suppose no book is perfect, I think A Girlhood: Letter to My Transgender Daughter is about as perfect as they come. It's part memoir, part research project, part confessional. The writing is personal, tender, and fierce. I found so much that resonated about parenting in general, the way we l......more

Goodreads review by Spencer on July 24, 2022

This is the most important book I’ll read all year. This novel is told through letters from a mother to her transgender daughter, revolving around a terrible and catalyzing incident. While living in the Bible Belt, an anonymous complaint is made to the Department of Children and Families about the f......more

Goodreads review by Shannon on March 31, 2025

This heartfelt, inspiring memoir written by the mother of a trans girl is a mix of cultural critique and trans history. It is also a useful guide to raising and supporting trans and gender diverse youth. While the audio is only available in the U.S., I was able to listen to it and really enjoyed the......more

Goodreads review by Sabrina on August 06, 2022

Please read this book! I received an ARC of A Girlhood from my local bookstore - my first-ever ARC, and what a great book to get to read early. A Girlhood is a first-hand look at of the joys, challenges, dangers, and fears that come with raising a trans child. It is also a beautiful story of a famil......more

Quotes

“Powerfully intimate…Hays trains her powers of observation on the sheer wonder of a child in bloom.” New York Times Book Review

“Hays here presents a different view of God—as a being of pure love that would never consider her daughter a mistake but, instead, a gift." Oprah Daily

“Touching, combative, compelling…This memoir begins with the suspense of a thriller and ends with…hope.” Vogue (Italy)

“[A] clear-eyed, love-filled tale.” Booklist

“Narrator Erin Bennett confidently delivers this compelling memoir…With deliberate pacing and a clear, assertive voice, Bennett captures the author’s fierce love for her child and fervent advocacy for the transgender community. Her serious tone channels Hays’s urgent plea for all children to be seen and loved for exactly who they are.” AudioFile

“A transfixing odyssey of a mother stewarding a preternaturally wise child and an American family circling to protect that child.” Diana Goetsch, author of This Body I Wore

“It’s about ignorance and wisdom; hatred and love; men, women, and children. In the end, A Girlhood is about all of us.” Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She’s Not There

Awards

  • New York Times Book Review pick
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