Only other people make me feel like there’s something wrong with me. I don’t feel like I’m someone I shouldn’t be. Her problem, as she sees it, is that people are always making such a big deal about her being “different”-i.e., wearing her older brother’s clothes, wanting her hair short, and having known forever that she likes girls. Here’s how she introduces herself in the opening of the novel: “There are four of us dudes sitting here right now, and I kick all of their butts when it comes to video games-and I’m not even a dude in the first place.” That’s Pen, just being the video-game-loving, one-of-the-guys-but-not, easy-going person that she is. Pen-short for Penelope-is a 16-year-old second-generation Portuguese teen living in Toronto (or maybe outside of Toronto? I can’t remember exactly) and going to St. But if you’re looking for an achingly real young queer person trying to figure out how to be herself and interact meaningfully and respectfully with those around her-with plenty of mishaps on the way- Girl Mans Up is for you.

If you’re looking for a superheroine who always does the right thing and astutely assesses everything around her, Pen is not your protagonist. This book really feels like it’s written by someone who intimately knows today’s teens. Girard nails the teenage perspective of main character Pen, even all of her flaws, limited knowledge, and bad decisions. Carefully and authentically, Girard is completely honest about all her characters’ ugly messiness and the intricacies of the sometimes shitty, dog-eat-dog world of high school. It’s exciting to see one of the big five publish this book-and by a Canadian author and set in Canada no less! (The book officially came out September 6 th). In that way, it’s a new and necessary story, especially for a big publisher (HarperCollins) to be putting out in the height of fall book publishing frenzy. Girl Mans Up, by M-E Girard, delivers exactly that.

Despite the plethora of queer YA these days, there was something that I didn’t even quite realize that was mostly missing in contemporary LGBTQ+ YA, let alone Canadian LGBTQ+ YA: stories about butch/genderqueer lesbians and their gender journeys.

Girl Mans Up by M.E. Girard