“Powerful and empowering, with an optimistic message that we all need more of in our lives.” – Kate Bornstein, author of Gender Outlaw
“[Being Emily] feels incredibly honest, and there are moments of joy, anger, and sorrow, laced together in a way that will make you cry and laugh along with the characters. It doesn’t shy away from the hardship but it also doesn’t make the claim that this hard stuff is all a trans person’s life is ever.” – YA Pride
“I was hooked by this deeply layered story! Nico is a lovable tour guide for exploring beyond the gender binary and brings an important perspective and voice for youth who do not ‘fit in the boxes.'” — Elyse Pine, MD, Trans Youth Lead Physician, Gender JOY, Chase Brexton Health Care
Given that we’re in a particular time in American history, I’m adding more resilience and resistance to my class, LGBTQ2S+ Literature in America, in spring 2026. This includes adding more indigenous voices and more Black voices—as well as more play and magic (all of which often overlap). Here’s a sneak peek of the additions students will get to experience in the spring:...
When people discover sapphic and LGBTQ+ literature, it’s a miracle. The first time I walked into a queer bookstore, it was a miracle. And it’s a miracle that repeats for me every year at the Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) conference–my favorite conference to attend and a haven of sapphic literature. ...
Because Rachel’s books include issues of diversity, transgender lives, bullying, abuse and mental health, they’re ideal for classroom use.
Rachel’s books have been taught in college-level classrooms, including:
A group of LGBTQ+ college students find themselves, and a whole lot of trouble, as they search for a retired professor’s hidden, immensely valuable coin collection. Clues come from decoding classic lesbian and sapphic books—but in six years no one has found the treasure.
Second-generation lesbian Maze Lister planned to skip the treasure hunt. She’s read all the books—they’re in her moms’ library—and doesn’t need the money. But a late night spent with charismatic athlete Lys Neil changes her mind. The two of them bond over their neurodivergent minds, even though they handle their ADHD in sharply different ways.
Maze and Lys decide to compete in the treasure hunt together, but chance puts them on competing teams within a group of students just as determined as they are—and willing to bend the rules. Secret teams form, accusations fly, and everyone starts to learn much more about themselves than they bargained for. Can they decode the stories and find the prize before a malevolent classmate turns them against each other and takes the treasure for herself?
“Powerful and empowering, with an optimistic message that we all need more of in our lives. I’m thrilled to see this book is out in the world.” – Kate Bornstein, author of Gender Outlaw and A Queer and Pleasant Danger
They say that whoever you are it’s okay, you were born that way. Those words don’t comfort Emily, because she was born Christopher and her insides know that her outsides are all wrong.
They say that it gets better, be who you are and it’ll be fine. For Emily, telling her parents who she really is means a therapist who insists Christopher is normal and Emily is sick. Telling her girlfriend means lectures about how God doesn’t make that kind of mistake.
Emily desperately wants high school in her small Minnesota town to get better. She wants to be the woman she knows is inside, but it’s not until a substitute therapist and a girl named Natalie come into her life that she believes she has a chance of actually Being Emily.
A story for anyone who has ever felt that the inside and outside don’t match and no one else will understand…
In this new, expanded version you will find:
