Pitching Being You: A First Conversation About Gender

By Kassandra Coleman

About Being You

Being You: A First Conversation About Gender is a children’s board book written by Jessica Ralli and Megan Madison and illustrated by Anne Passchier. It discusses gender, sex, and body positivity to help young children understand all of these heavy topics. It also teaches them about their own bodies and gender stereotypes. These topics are discussed in a simple manner that can help them understand that everyone is unique.

Why this book?

This book is a part of a series titled Being You. All of these books touch on important conversations that need to be held with children, like race and consent. 

This book is important because gender and sex are topics that are often neglected in children’s education since it is seen as too difficult or too mature. However, it is important for young children to learn about human anatomy, gender, and consent from a young age since children tend to learn from their environment and will notice gender stereotypes all around them. This book can aid in helping them understand what they are seeing and teach them that it is all right to not identify as the gender that you were assigned and that gender and sexuality are a spectrum. Discussing these topics with children could facilitate their self-discoveries, make their transitions easier and educate other children about how to support those who are going through those changes and those who are questioning themselves. This book promotes the importance of having a healthy relationship with your body and advocates for self-love.