In the acclaimed book American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era, Nico Lang immerses themself into the lives of eight trans and nonbinary teenagers across the country, painting pictures of the youths’ lives as well as those connected to them. In doing so, Lang reveals the peaks and valleys of the teens’ lives, showing that their lives are just as complex—and normal—as those of their non-TGNC counterparts.
NOTE: This conversation was edited for clarity and length.
Windy City Times: For our readers, please talk about the genesis of this book and how you went about selecting the people you feature.
Nico Lang: Sure. I really wrote this book because I knew that I could do it. I’ve known so many of these families for such a long time, because I’ve been doing this work for such a long time.
The first story that I ever worked on about the family of a trans kid was with Amber Briggles’ family back in 2016-17—and my work just kind of snowballed from there. Amber and I really liked each other and we liked working together, so I got referrals for other families that were looking to tell their stories. It was really important because we rapidly saw the attacks on trans kids across the country, and a lot of that was centered in Texas, where we were seeing the anti-trans bathroom bills the year after HB2 happened in North Carolina. Then, it just spiraled and [other bills] came up in other states; it happened so quickly, and it affected so many communities, that families recognized that they needed to tell their stories. There was so much fear and misinformation; they wanted to humanize a very diverse community by telling their stories.
I had a lot of trust with those families. They know me; they know I do a good job, and we just stayed in each other’s lives. I watched them grow up; I watched them graduate, and that’s been such a privilege to do. So when it came to this book, I knew that I would have the kind of access and trust to not only tell these stories, but to tell them in a deep, rich and meaningful way that very few journalists could do. And I knew I had to do it. I had a responsibility to do it if I could—and if I could, I should.
This year, more than 650 bills were introduced across the country in state legislatures that targeted basic rights and protections for trans kids—for trans people, more broadly, but especially trans kids. And in response to that, I knew that I needed to be part of the solution to that—and the way to do that is to allow trans kids to speak for themselves.
Republicans have introduced and passed so many anti-trans laws so quickly that they have erased and silenced the people that [the statutes] impact. They pretend like these are victimless crimes that don’t affect or hurt anybody—and we know that’s not true. Families across the country have been severely hurt but they’re rarely had the chance to tell us about the impact. This book is not only about centering the impact but also about telling a new story about the lives of trans teens. I wanted them to be multifaceted and well-rounded and funny and interesting—and even annoyingly teenager-y. I just wanted them to let them be kids. I’m so glad I got to write this. It was the privilege and honor of a lifetime.
WCT: I often try to put myself in other people’s shoes when it comes to understanding how they think. Have you tried that with those who pass these anti-trans bills—or is it a wasted effort because you, like myself, just don’t understand how they could even think that way?
NL: I think I do understand it. We’re all coming from these different places, right? We all have these different experiences and ways that we see the world. So many people who are scared of trans kids have these fears and misconceptions, and haven’t had the experience of knowing a trans person well. They also haven’t had the experience of knowing a trans kid to see that they’re just like all other kids.
With this book, I felt it was really important to give readers that opportunity—that even if you are a Republican, the big hang-up here is that you haven’t met anybody. Now you have the ability to meet ordinary and extraordinary trans kids, and their stories can make a really big difference. With this book, I was trying to make sure there were enough different experiences—different ethnicities and religious backgrounds—to see that lots of different kinds of families are touched by this. Republicans probably do know trans people; they just don’t know that they know them. I tried to make the chapters deep character studies—as deep as humanly possible—so that you feel that you really got to connect that kid’s experience.
I got to know some of these families better than people I’ve known for 20 years. We shared so much together; we laughed and we cried. I hope that readers feel a little of the same thing. You realize that these are people just like you.
WCT: Of course, with Windy City Times being based in Chicago, I want to talk a little about the Chicago-area teen Clint. I found the story of Clint, a teen Muslim, very absorbing—down to the fact that he doesn’t want to be an activist. He just wants to be like most teens. Did that throw you off in any way?
NL: Not really. I think that I maybe expected it from Clint a little bit because it’s his personality, but he’s such an iconoclast that he’s not going to live life by anyone else’s rules. If Wyatt or Rhydian—my other kids in the book—had told me that, I’d be very surprised; if my West Virginia kid, Mykah, had told me that, I would’ve fallen down on the floor. But Clint is so much his own person, and he gets to speak back to things that a lot of us might project onto trans kids—what we expect them to be. People really expect trans kids to be advocates in their community, and it’s just unfair to a lot of these kids. They struggle with the weight of this responsibility that they don’t want for themselves; they just want to be kids.
Clint wants to be a trans kid on his own terms. That’s the choice every trans kid should get to make. The problem is that, in many places, they really don’t have a choice. They’re forced to the front lines because nobody else is going to do that for them. With Clint, I think it’s speaking from a place of privilege, right? But isn’t that what we should want for all of these kids? A lot of people might chafe at what Clint says, but I think it’s very aspirational.
WCT: One of the advantages of writing in the style that you do—narrative or anecdotal—is that it doesn’t come off as condescending. So people ere going to be more likely to read your book and not be offended—and then realize that the [book’s subjects] are standard American teenagers in many ways.
NL: I like that you said that because, many moons ago, I read that viewers of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were more politically engaged than the average person. There were a couple hypotheses. One is that those people are already reading and watching so much news that, of course, they’re more informed and aware than the average person—and that they were already bringing that to the shows with them. However, there was another hypothesis that the fact that [the shows] were presenting the news in a funny way had this approachability to it and made it more receptive to people.
I applied that to this book. I felt that if the book were a little funny and more approachable when dealing with really heavy stuff, then people could engage with it and might actually learn it. I didn’t want the book to feel like I was just explaining things to you. Many people who are picking up this book are going to be trans. What’s the point of explaining this stuff to them?
WCT: Are you sending a copy of American Teenager to [anti-trans Harry Potter author] J.K. Rowling? Just wondering…
NL: My publisher asked if I wanted to and I said “no.” It’s not worth it. I don’t mind engaging the other side, but this woman doesn’t let anything go. I would be on her list forever. She notoriously does not drop things. My aspiration is not to be the number-one person on J.K. Rowling’s watchlist.
WCT: I get it. What were one or two of the most surprising things you discovered while writing this book?
NL: It’s funny. I’ve been doing this for so long that I don’t think there was anything that surprised me. But it was eye-opening, in a way, to see how severe some of the things were that these kids have gone through. We know that these horror stories happen, but we don’t often hear about them You’ll hear about people’s healthcare being taken away in Florida—but you don’t really hear about what happens afterward. You don’t hear about what people who don’t have healthcare are doing, so we’re often missing the second and third acts in these stories.
With these stories, we really [read] about the lived reality of anti-trans policies, particularly in our Florida chapter, which is about teens named Augie and Jack. I believe Jack was 19 when I visited; she briefly lost her gender-affirming care when the state revoked coverage for trans health under Medicaid, so she went without it for five months. So I really treaded lightly with how we talked about it in the book; what she told me about it was really, really, really dark—comparing things to a real-life [David] Cronenberg movie—and I didn’t want to be overly traumatizing for the reader. I had never heard the terms of the discussion put in such a stark way before, although I knew intellectually that it happened. But I’ll never forget what she told me—and it makes me more dedicated to fighting for folks who go through the same things, because I know how bad it can be.
WCT: Are you planning on writing a sequel 10 years down the road about these same [people]?
NL: I don’t know. There’s this great movie series, with Seven Up!, which then had [7 Plus Seven] and other movies. [Note: It went to 63 Up.] I look at this book as being a documentary in book form. Hoop Dreams was [one] inspiration on this book. I’ve been wondering if this is something I want to return to. The problem I have, though, is that a lot of the kids wouldn’t want to do this. My California kid, Kylie, didn’t want to do it; it was really her mom who did. Kylie was mostly doing it to make her mom happy. If I met up with her in a few years, I highly doubt she would consent to doing this again, even though we had a lovely time; she probably wouldn’t even return my texts. And it’s the same with Clint; his goal is to disappear and live his life in the wilderness like Henry David Thoreau or someone.
But I will say that there are lots of stories that I didn’t get to in this book that I’d be interested in exploring. For example, I would’ve really loved to have told a Mormon story and I would’ve loved to have gone to Alaska or Hawaii, which is not like anywhere else in the country. And it hurt my heart that people don’t get to see supportive Black parents in this book. If I did this over again, I’d love to show that there are all kinds of families of color that show up for their kids exactly as they are.
WCT: What does this book say about you?
NL: God—I hope nothing. I think there’s this idea that we’re always creating space for ourselves, like we’re making it easier for the kids who come after us. As a journalist, I don’t think of that. My goal is to create space for other people in the world. It’s not about me. Sure, I’m a nonbinary person and there are ways that I related to the kids and their struggles, but it’s not about me. That’s why I really de-emphasize my presence in the book; I wanted the emphasis to be on these kids, their journeys and their struggles. And I hope, as queer people, that we get out of this idea that we only help people because their stories resonate with us.
American Teenager will be released on Tuesday, Oct. 8. It is available wherever books are sold.