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Title details for What We Will Become by Mimi Lemay - Available

What We Will Become

A Mother, a Son, and a Journey of Transformation

by Mimi Lemay
Mimi Lemay
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available

A mother's memoir of her transgender child's odyssey, and her journey outside the boundaries of the faith and culture that shaped her.
From the age of two-and-a-half, Jacob, born "Em," adamantly told his family he was a boy. While his mother Mimi struggled to understand and come to terms with the fact that her child may be transgender, she experienced a sense of déjà vu—the journey to uncover the source of her child's inner turmoil unearthed ghosts from Mimi's past and her own struggle to live an authentic life.

Mimi was raised in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, every aspect of her life dictated by ancient rules and her role as a woman largely preordained from cradle to grave. As a young woman, Mimi wrestled with the demands of her faith and eventually made the painful decision to leave her religious community and the strict gender roles it upheld.

Having risen from the ashes of her former life, Mimi was prepared to help her son forge a new one — at a time when there was little consensus on how best to help young transgender children. Dual narratives of faith and motherhood weave together to form a heartfelt portrait of an unforgettable family. Brimming with love and courage, What We Will Become is a powerful testament to how painful events from the past can be redeemed to give us hope for the future.
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  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 12, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780358172208
      • File size: 347379 KB
      • Duration: 12:03:42

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 19, 2019
      Debut author and transgender rights advocate Lemay tells the story of her four-year-old child’s gender transformation in this engrossing and compassionate memoir. Born in 2010, “Em” (a pseudonym) was the middle daughter of Lemay and her husband, a software engineer. Lemay’s story segues between her past as an ultra-Orthodox Jew born in Israel in 1976 and her coming to grips with her child’s gender identity. While attending college in Boston, Lemay abandoned Orthodoxy and later married a man outside the faith. Their daughter, Lemay writes, changed clothes 10 times daily, threw tantrums, and declared she was a boy at the age of two. Lemay sought the help of a social worker and learned that persistence, insistence, and consistency are signs that an individual may be transgender. After a near car accident with her three children in tow, Lemay decided to embrace Em’s trans identity, a difficult choice, she writes, given her rigid religious upbringing. Lemay came to realize how vital it is to nurture a child’s true nature—a decision reinforced by statistics revealing the high rate of attempted suicides by transgender individuals who are not supported. Lemay eventually helped Em, now Jacob, as he entered kindergarten. This fascinating, heart-wrenching memoir offers invaluable insights into issues of gender identity.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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