F2M: The Boy Within
Ryan Kennedy and Hazel Edwards

F2M, co-written by Ryan Kennedy and Hazel Edwards, is the first novel for young adults about a female to male transition to be written by a transgender author. While it is Hazel’s 200th book, it is Ryan’s very first, and is loosely based on his own knowledge and experience of punk music and transitioning from female to male.

The co-authors have known each other as family friends since Ryan was an eleven-year-old, and when they met again in Melbourne in 2008, they decided to write the book together. Because Hazel Edwards is based in Melbourne and Ryan in Wellington, they worked via email and Skype, passing over 60 drafts across the ditch. They shaped a story about the fictional character Skye who, to begin with, is referred to as ‘she’ and female. Skye feels that inside her head she is really male, and decides to transition to become a boy, Finn. The book is engaging and very informative, and while it focuses on Finn’s transition, it is fundamentally a story of a young person’s discovery of who they are, which a broad audience will identify with.

As well as being the first of its kind, the book is an important addition to the small amount of information available for and about trans people, particularly because it is a story about a realistic character that is easy to relate to. While both Ryan and the character Finn found that the internet was a good source of information, there are few resources like this in print that are easy to access around bookshops and libraries. The book was recently launched at Unity Books on Willis St, and was launched in Melbourne earlier this year.