Nico Lang On Finding Space For Queer Joy In Their Extraordinary New Book

Nico Lang’s extraordinary American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era dives into the lives of seven families of trans and nonbinary youth in seven different states. Lang, an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone and The New York Times, spent weeks with each of the families, interviewing various family members and learning about the details of their daily life. The result is a compassionate examination of what it is like to grow up trans today, whether it’s navigating the typical problems of adolescence or the effect of anti-trans laws on every apsect of their family life. Critics have met American Teenager with rapturous praise. The Washington Post called it “a necessary work of patient, dogged reportage” and BookPage hailed it as a “series of complex, sometimes searing and always sensitive portraits of young people whose right to existence currently hangs in the balance.” Lang spoke to us about the book’s origins, the advocacy work of the different families, and holding space for queer joy in the book.