Northern California

During eir childhood, Kobabe and eir family lived in Northern California. Kobabe grew up in a home where gender roles and stereotypes were not reinforced, and the family lived an off-the-grid lifestyle with no electricity or flush toilets. Their house was on a 120-acre property with one other house, that of the family of Kobabe's best friend growing up, Galen. E grew up sheltered in many ways, and found the transition from life with eir family and Galen to attending school with other children difficult because e experienced gender roles and expectations for the first time.

Books

Kobabe writes frequently of the ways in which books gave em insight into the world beyond eir home and school, which is particularly important for a child growing up queer and nonbinary lacking other forms of education and figures of representation for these identities. E recalls reading the Alanna...