Gender Identity for Kids : A Guide to Exploring Who You Are

"A sensitive and empowering exploration of identity and expression that both educates and celebrates."
—School Library Journal

The Gender Identity Workbook for Kids offers fun, age-appropriate activities to help your child explore their identity and discover unique ways to navigate gender expression at home, in school, and with friends.

Transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) children need validation and support on their journey toward self-discovery. Unfortunately, due to stigma and misinformation, these kids can be especially vulnerable to bullying, discrimination, and even mental health issues such as anxiety or depression. The good news is that there are steps you can take to empower your child as they explore, understand, and affirm their gender identity. This important workbook will guide you both.

In this guide, a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in gender-nonconforming youth offers real tools to help your child thrive in all aspects of life. You and your child will discover a more expansive way of understanding gender; gain insight into gender diverse thoughts, feelings, and experiences; and find engaging activities with fun titles such as, “Apple, Oranges, and Fruit Bowls” and “Pronoun Town” to help your child to explore their own unique identity in a way that is age-appropriate and validating.

No child experiences gender in a vacuum, and children don’t just transition—families do. Let this workbook guide you and your child on this important journey in their lives.

Kelly Storck, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker with a private therapy practice in St. Louis, MO. Kelly’s focus is in gender care and advocacy for transgender rights. Along with this work, Kelly presents workshops and trainings on issues relevant to gender diversity with intent to help support the greater health, well-being, and liberty of people of all genders.

Foreword writer Diane Ehrensaft, PhD, is director of mental health, and a founding member of the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Child and Adolescent Gender Center Clinic. She is a developmental and clinical psychologist in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Illustrator Noah Grigni (he/they) is a queer, genderqueer, trans masculine artist and organizer from Decatur, Georgia, currently living in Boston, Massachusetts, whose work focuses on themes of dysphoria, resilience, and finding strength in community. They create art to process personal experiences, navigate and confront systems of power, unlearn the binary, and celebrate trans and queer love. Noah’s art is a reminder to heal, an introspective conversation with fluidity, and a call for trans people to resist the false narratives pushed onto us and define ourselves on our own terms. Through art and advocacy, Noah hopes to create spaces for emerging LGBTQ artists and provide educational resources to trans kids, especially those living in conservative environments. You can view Noah’s work at noahgrigni.com, or follow them on instagram @ngrigni.