'If I Was Your Girl' is a hard-hitting and important young adult contemporary about a transgender girl called Amanda who moves to a new school in search of a fresh start. The narrative weaves together events from both before and after her transition, exploring her experiences with gender dysphoria and transphobia, rejection and discrimination, gender policing and sexuality, bullying and assault as well as mental illness and attempted suicide. 
 Amanda is a beautifully complex and relatable main character, albeit written in such a way as to be readily accessible by representing the most socially acceptable and conventionally privileged trans perspective. However, this is less the fault of the author - who acknowledges that Amanda's identity reflects a somewhat polished version of reality - and more a reflection of an industry and culture in which certain types of narratives are still, unfortunately, considered more or less desirable (please refer to this review for a more thorough discussion as this is not my lane https://readingasiam.wordpress.com/20...). 
 I really appreciated the way the author explored concepts like toxic masculinity and misogyny, how to ally with and support trans people and challenged common stereotypes about sexuality and gender expression. I did, however, have a big problem with the way homophobia was equated with closeted homosexuality in this book and the fact that this notion was not unpacked. This is a dangerous and harmful concept and it frustrated me to see this in a book that was otherwise so sensitive with regards to representation. 
 However, on the whole this was an emotionally rich story that explores important topics with thoughtfulness and nuance, sharing some truly universal messages about identity, acceptance, conformity and compassion. While there are a lot more intersections to be explored when it comes to transgender representation in media this book is definitely a good starting place, especially for readers not broadly familiar with trans narratives. The romance is cute, the story is well written and easy to read and the author does a great job of subtly educating readers about different experiences with gender identity and expression. 
 TW: bullying/assault, transphobia, homophobia, public outing of a transgender person, deadnaming and misgendering, suicide.