A person’s identity includes a variety of elements of the self, as impacted by the world and the people around them. One part of identity is gender identity. Another is sexual orientation. Another yet includes race, ethnicity, and culture. All aspects of intersecting identities are important when exploring one’s gender and sexuality.

Intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw over 30 years ago. More recently, she states,

“It’s basically a lens, a prism, for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other. We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality or immigrant status. What’s often missing is how some people are subject to all of these, and the experience is not just the sum of its parts.”
https://time.com/5786710/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality/

It is important to consider intersectionality when exploring identity. How does culture, race, language, socioeconomic status, religion, etc impact your gender identity? How does it liberate your identity? Where does it limit gender? How does it empower you? These are questions you may ask yourself as you explore.

Below are a list of online and book resources for gender exploration. Some people choose to explore gender internally, some with a therapist, some through outward expression – there is no wrong way. This process is normal, endless, and magical. Follow your gut.

Workbooks for Exploring Your Gender

The Gender Book – the GENDER book is a fun, colorful, community based resource, which illustrates the beautiful diversity of gender – a gender 101 for anyone and everyone.

M y Gender Workbook – Kate Bornstein -Cultural theorists have written loads of smart but difficult-to-fathom texts on gender theory, but most fail to provide a hands-on, accessible guide for those trying to sort out their own sexual identities. My Gender Workbook, brings theory down to Earth and provides a practical approach to living with or without a gender.

The Gender Quest Workbook – This one-of-a-kind, comprehensive workbook will help you navigate your gender identity and expression at home, in school, and with peers. If you are a transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) teen, you may experience unique challenges with identity and interpersonal relationships. In addition to experiencing common teen challenges such as body changes and peer pressure, you may be wondering how to express your unique identity to others. The Gender Quest Workbook incorporates skills, exercises, and activities from evidence-based therapies—such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)—to help you address the broad range of struggles you may encounter related to gender identity, such as anxiety, isolation, fear, and even depression. Despite outdated beliefs, gender no longer implies being simply male or female, but rather a whole spectrum of possibilities. This fun, engaging workbook is designed specifically for teens like you who want to explore the concept of gender and gender identity and expression—whether you already identify as TGNC or are simply questioning your gender identity.

Gender Identity Workbook for Teens – Discover more about who you are and who you might want to become. Whether you’ve been pondering big feelings and questions about your gender, or you’re just a little curious about it, the Gender Identity Workbook for Teens is an interactive workbook that will walk you through what gender identity actually is. You’ll learn that there are endless ways to express yourself and that there’s no right or wrong way to identify. Try out writing prompts, quizzes, and activities that will help you organize and understand your thoughts about your identity, along with practical advice for talking about your gender, determining new names and pronouns, and getting involved with supportive communities both in real life and online.

Trans Teen Survival Guide – With a focus on self-care, expression and being proud of your unique identity, the guide is packed full of invaluable advice from people who understand the realities and complexities of growing up trans. Having been there, done that, Fox and Owl are able to honestly chart the course of life as a trans teen, from potentially life-saving advice on dealing with dysphoria or depression, to hilarious real-life awkward trans stories.

Inclusive books on Puberty & Bodies

The Every Body Book: The LGBTQ+ Inclusive Guide for Kids about Sex, Gender, Bodies, and Families – An illustrated LGBTQ+ inclusive kid’s guide to sex, gender and relationships education that includes children and families of all genders and sexual orientations, covering puberty, hormones, consent, sex, pregnancy and safety.

You-ology – What if learning about changing bodies wasn’t secretive or shameful? And what if it could even be inclusive, fun, and, well, kind of adorable? A new kind of puberty guide, You-ology embraces an inclusive approach that normalizes puberty for all kids.

Traditional puberty education only contributes to a sense of isolation and often does not include all kids’ experience of puberty and leaves kids with questions about how puberty will affect their friends and classmates. For curious kids and parents looking to talk about puberty in an inclusive way, You-ology offers fact-based, age appropriate, and body positive information about the physical, social, and emotional changes ahead for all kids.

Colorful illustrations keep the tone upbeat and engaging, while short stories featuring a cast of diverse characters add relatability and humor.

Books on Gender Diversity

Beyond the Gender Binary – Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today’s leading activists and artists. In this installment, Beyond the Gender Binary, Alok Vaid-Menon challenges the world to see gender not in black and white, but in full color. Taking from their own experiences as a gender-nonconforming artist, they show us that gender is a malleable and creative form of expression. The only limit is your imagination.

Seeing Gender – Seeing Gender is an of-the-moment investigation into how we express and understand the complexities of gender today. Deeply researched and fully illustrated, this book demystifies an intensely personal—yet universal—facet of humanity. Illustrating a different concept on each spread, queer author and artist Iris Gottlieb touches on history, science, sociology, and her own experience. This book is an essential tool for understanding and contributing to a necessary cultural conversation, bringing clarity and reassurance to the sometimes confusing process of navigating ones’ identity. Whether LGBTQ+, cisgender, or nonbinary, Seeing Gender is a must-read for intelligent, curious, want-to-be woke people who care about how we see and talk about gender and sexuality in the 21st century.

Transgender History – Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of The Transsexual Phenomenon, and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-’70s to 1990, the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the ’90s and ’00s.