Wyatt Benjamin/ Nicole Amber Maines

The hub and focus of this book are Wyatt and his journey of transformation to Nicole. Wyatt is born on October 7, 1997 to a 16-year-old young woman, Sarah. He and his identical twin brother, Jonas, are adopted by Kelly and Wayne. It is difficult to tell the two apart, as Wyatt’s face is “ever so slightly rounder” (xvii). However, as Wyatt becomes a toddler, it becomes clear that he has proclivities to toys and clothing culturally considered as girls’ items. Jonas does not. What is sometimes referred to as a stage becomes stronger, and Wyatt, by seven years old, considers himself a boy-girl and has a strong dislike for his male genitalia. By age nine he prefers everyone to call him by female pronouns and choses the name Nicole. Since gender is innate, most people do not think about it—unless people treat...