Author Lindz Amer's Debut Picture Book Celebrates Gender Euphoria

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to sleep under a million cozy blankets? Or what it might feel like to smile so hard that your cheeks fall off? What about what it must feel like to jump so high you could say “hello” to the moon and all the stars? Well, author Lindz Amer seems to know the exact feeling. On February 7, 2024, Amer will release their debut picture book, Hooray for She, He, Ze, and They! which likens the correct use of one’s pronouns to the aforementioned feelings of euphoria, illustrating why it’s so imperative to recognize and acknowledge people as their truest selves.

Though Hooray for She, He, Ze, and They! is their first picture book, Amer’s first book was published in May 2023. Rainbow Parenting: Your Guide to Raising Queer Kids and Their Allies is a book aimed at adults who are eager to raise their children in a queer and gender-affirming way but may not know how.

Amer’s roots in LGBTQ content date even further back to 2016, with the development of their YouTube Channel Queer Kid Stuff, a children’s content channel geared toward LGBTQ issues and education. The channel often touches on topics like sexuality, gender identity, consent, and various forms of pop culture. With nearly 25,000 subscribers, the channel has amassed over 2.6 million views in its eight years of operation. And given their content’s slant toward children, Amer’s been dubbed the “Queer Mr. Rogers.”

In approaching their projects, Amer utilizes something they refer to as “going under the doorknob,” which is essentially the process of “getting down to the ground and looking up at the world through a child’s eyes.” For them, the best way to go about their work is to deconstruct a concept until it would make sense to a child. “How can I simplify an idea instead of dumbing it down?” Amer often asks themself when starting a new project.

Amer is acutely aware that the topics they try to unpack often require a fair bit of deconstruction. “You can explain what intersectionality is to a kid, but you’re not going to start with that,” Amer told The FBomb. “You’d start with different parts of identity and that we are people with all of these different identities, and we have to look at them all together.”

In their forthcoming project, Hooray for She, He, Ze, and They!, Amer breaks down the concept of gender affirmation. “It’s not a book that explains pronouns,” they say, but “a book that explains gender euphoria by using pronouns as the tool.”

As Amer explains, kids are always learning about their own insular worlds, and understanding facets of themselves is a helpful way for students to grapple with the larger concept of identity. That understanding is also important for their parents.

“All of the work is meant to be for all ages, meant to be consumed by parents and adults simultaneously,” Amer says. “The book is a catalyst for a larger conversation that can be had essentially on a daily basis.”

And that’s how Amer hopes readers use it — as part of a regular ritual between parents, or guardians, and their children that gives them the space to negotiate what it means to be themselves. We largely accept the way children learn about and experiment with their identity through “make-believe” or “dress-up”; Amer’s book essentially posits that gender should be a part of exploration and experimentation.

At age 32, Amer is acutely aware of the impact reading a book about gender euphoria could have had on them as a child. “If I had the language, if I had the understanding, if I had access to the information as a young person, what would it have changed?” they ask themself. “I would’ve been more secure.”

Amer’s ultimate hope for the book is that copies end up in tatters — that they are so well-loved that their pages are wrinkled from constant turning and dog-earring with frayed spines and warped covers. They hope readers take away the message that “it doesn’t matter what gender you are, it doesn’t matter what pronouns you use, you are loved and accepted in this family and in this space.”

Ultimately, they reiterate that the book is just the beginning of a larger and ongoing conversation and practice in the realm of affirmation and euphoria. To Amer, the book is more than just a tool. “I hope this is a catalyst for a conversation,” they say, “but also a catalyst for a philosophy for raising kids.”