Book Talk: American Teenager

How do you respond with love and support when your child questions their gender?
Join us for a Conversation with author Nico Lang and Dean Kate Moorehead Carroll
Tuesday, April 13
6 p.m.
Taliaferro Hall
St. John’s Cathedral

From an award-winning journalist comes a thoughtful and deeply human portrait of transgender and nonbinary teenagers across the United States. American Teenager follows young people as they navigate daily life—their relationships, hopes, challenges, and moments of joy—offering readers a clearer understanding of what it means to grow up trans in America today.

“American Teenager is an incredibly important, humane account of the joys and struggles of so many youth,” writes Garrard Conley, author of Boy Erased: A Memoir. Gabe Dunn, New York Times bestselling coauthor of I Hate Everyone But You, describes the book as “expansive and compassionate,” noting Lang’s ability to bring warmth and immediacy to complex terrain.

In American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era, journalist Nico Lang centers voices that are too often absent from public conversation: transgender and gender nonconforming young people themselves. Over the course of a year, Lang traveled the country, spending time with teens and their families and listening closely to their lived experiences. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, the book offers an intimate, grounded look at adolescence, identity, and belonging.

Set in diverse communities—from small towns to large cities, and across a range of cultural and faith contexts—American Teenager introduces readers to eight young people whose stories reflect resilience, vulnerability, and hope. At its heart, the book is an invitation to see these teens as they see themselves: young people growing, learning, and imagining a future shaped by connection, dignity, and care.

The St. John’s Cathedral Bookstore & Gift Shop will have books for sale at the event.