Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Girl Mans Up
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.megirard.com/
CITY: Toronto
STATE: ON
COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY: Canadian
https://www.harpercollins.com/cr-123436/m-e-girard * http://www.megirard.com/about.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born Quebec, Canada.
EDUCATION:Attended college, nursing degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, young-adult novelist, and nurse. Works nights as a pediatric nurse.
MEMBER:Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Writers’ Union of Canada, Writers’ Community of Durham Region.
AWARDS:Lambda Literary Fellow, 2013, 2015.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
M-E Girard is a young-adult author who works as a pediatric nurse. On her home page, Girard notes that she wrote a lot of first chapters of books in her youth but never went much further. Eventually, Girard went off to college to become a nurse. Then, around 2009, Girard decided to take writing classes and eventually wrote a manuscript that helped her get a literary agent and selected for the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices in 2013. While she was at the retreat, Girard worked with Malinda Lo, a young-adult novelist. Girard returned to the retreat as a fellow in 2015 and then worked with Sara Ryan, an author of books and comics for teens.
In her debut YA novel, Girl Mans Up, Girard tells the story of sixteen-year-old Penelope, known as Pen. The daughter of Portuguese immigrants, Pen is something of a conundrum to those around her. She acts tough and and has a predilection for wearing boys’ black clothes. However, inside Pen is struggling with her identity, realizing that she is not a boy but does not want to be a girl either. Mostly, she wants those around her to let her be herself, no matter what that might be. Meanwhile, Pen also has the typical teenage problems, including clashes with her parents and friendships that turn bad.
“Pen knows very little about things like the gender binary, non-binary-identified people, transness, the concept of self-identifying, or even queerness,” Girard noted in an interview for the Diversity in YA Web site, adding: “She just hasn’t been that curious about it, and definitely doesn’t have anyone in her life who would facilitate these kinds of conversations. This makes it really hard for her to understand what she’s dealing with. It makes her doubt herself because she doesn’t feel smart enough to ‘know what she’s talking about.’”
Pen’s best friend is a boy named Colby, who treats her like one of the boys and has helped shield her from some of the harsher tendencies of her teenage classmates. Then one day Pen sees a classmate named Olivia vomiting at school. Olivia was once Colby’s girlfriend. Pen ends up becoming friends with Olivia. As a result, she begins to learn the true nature of Colby, who has become mean and controlling, to the point that he attempts to force Pen to have sex with him. It also turns out that Colby has gotten Olivia pregnant and refuses to take on any responsibility.
Pen is also dealing with the expectations of her old-world parents, leading to more and more conflicts at home, especially after her older brother, Johnny, has been kicked out of the house by her conservative parents. At one point in the novel, Pen reflects on how she always wore Johnny’s clothes and for a long time was merely viewed as a tomboy. Her “identity crisis is one of the central issues … but … Girard takes the tale well beyond the stereotypical comments from Pen’s peers,” wrote BookPage Online contributor Sharon Verboten. As Pen struggles, she gets little help from her parents, who believe that any abuse Pen suffers at school and from other people is solely her own fault.
In her interview for the Diversity in YA Web site, Girard noted that Pen’s style of dressing and her sexual orientation were fundamental to the story because, as Girard observes in the interview, “how identifiably queer they look … will often determine how much and what kind of negative reactions and treatment they’ll get.” Girard went on to note that Pen eventually discovers that it is the way she dresses and looks that draws attention more than the fact that she is attracted to girls.
Meanwhile, Olivia makes friends with another girl named Blake, and the two are soon embarked on an affair of their own. Olivia begins to realize that she has to stand up more for herself, especially in the case of Colby, as she becomes closer and closer to Blake and Olivia, who are both computer gamers like Pen. As a result, Pen must reassess where her loyalties are and decide on the true meaning of respect in relation to her friends, classmates, and parents, who have often demanded respect but who appear to have little respect for Pen. A Kirkus Reviews Online contributor referred to Pen as “a strong genderqueer lesbian character, imperfect, independent, and deserving of every cheer.” Eventually, Pen comes to the realization that the people she really respects are Olivia, Blake, and Johnny, who has always come to her aid and ends up helping her leave behind a nonsupportive home environment.
“Girl Mans Up makes a much needed contribution to young adult literature by introducing a vibrant character whose identity falls outside of the gender binary,” wrote Allison Babin in a review for Voice of Youth Advocates. Reinhardt Suarez, writing for Booklist, remarked: “Girard shows tremendous skill in depicting multidimensional and empathetic characters.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, August 1, 2016, Reinhardt Suarez, review of Girl Mans Up, p. 63.
Horn Book, November-December, 2016, Claire E. Gross, review of Girl Mans Up, p. 73.
Publishers Weekly, July 25, 2016, review of Girl Mans Up, p. 78.
School Library Journal, July, 2016, Jaclyn Anderson, review of Girl Mans Up, p. 82.
Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 2016, Allison Babin, review of Girl Mans Up, p. 60.
ONLINE
Blythe Woolston, http://blythewoolston.blogspot.com/ (January 10, 2017), Blythe Woolston, “M-E Girard: Morris Award Interview.”
BookPage Online, https://bookpage.com (September 2016), Sharon Verboten, review of Girl Mans Up.
Diversity in YA, http://www.diversityinya.com/ (September 7, 2016), “Q&A with M-E Girard, Author of Girl Mans Up.”
Globe and Mail, http://www.theglobeandmail.com (September 30, 2016), Shannon Ozirny, “Review: M-E Girard’s Girl Mans Up Stellar Debut Novel Captures the Complexity of Gender and Adolescence.”
HarperCollins Publishers Web site, https://www.harpercollins.com/ (April 18, 2017), brief author biography.
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com (June 22, 2016), review of Girl Mans Up; (September 6, 2016), Megan Labrise, “M-E Girard: Author of Girl Mans Up,” author interview.
M-E Girard Home Page, http://www.megirard.com (April 18, 2017).
A little bit about me
The beginning...
I remember writing lots of Chapter 1s, some story outlines, maps to cities where my R.L. Stine-esque series of teen novels was to take place. Mostly, though, I gave up on each of the things that seemed to hint at my desire to write stories. I don't know that I ever wrote a Chapter 2. So I went to college and became a pediatric nurse (which I do enjoy).
The middle-ish...
In 2009, I felt myself getting old(er), and my tendency to become a flake when it comes to pursuing my interests started to get on my nerves. I took some writing classes, wrote something all the way to the end (which sucked, I must admit). After that I wrote another manuscript, and that one was pretty cool. Cool enough to land me literary representation. And on top of that, it helped me get selected for the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices (I was a fellow in 2013 and got to work closely with author Malinda Lo, then I returned in 2015 and got to work with author Sara Ryan).
In January 2015, I announced that my debut novel GIRL MANS UP would be published in September 2016 by HarperTeen/HarperCollins and HarperCollins Canada.
GIRL MANS UP is about a queer teen named Pen who realizes the only way she'll get people off her back is by standing up for herself--even if that means her relationships with her friends and her family get messed up in the process. It's also about a gender-nonconforming teen who struggles to own her identity as a girl when she looks and acts like a boy and everyone around her expects her to be one or the other.
Now...
Girl Mans Up is out in the world! I'm doing my author thing, going to events to speak and/or facilitate workshops, doing book signings whenever I can, doing a little bit of Twitter action here and there, and working on a new YA novel.
I am a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, the Writers' Community of Durham Region, and the Writers' Union of Canada.
My official bio
M-E Girard lives just outside Toronto, where she splits her time between writing YA fiction about badass teen girls and working nights as a pediatric nurse. A 2013 and 2015 Lambda Literary Fellow, M-E is a proud feminist who is endlessly fascinated by the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding the concept of gender. Her debut novel GIRL MANS UP (September 2016, HarperTeen | HarperCollins Canada), was a 2017 William C . Morris YA Debut Award finalist. You can find her online at www.megirard.com and all over social media.
Here's where I do a little FAQ, interviewing myself about things I think people might be interested
in knowing about me. I guess I can't call it an FAQ since no one's asked me these questions frequently,
or at all. It would be more of an FYI. I'll probably add questions to my interview in the future (and do
email me if there's something you'd like to know!).
How long have you been writing?
For real—like really trying to be a writer—I guess that would be 2009. I started by deciding on a YA story that I thought would make an OK novel. I wrote the entire thing (probably around 70 thousand words), then I immediately started writing a sequel to that (which took place in college). I finished that too. Then I’d hear, “When are you going to publish it?” Somehow, I knew it didn’t work that way, and I also had this very strong suspicion that what I wrote sucked absolute butt and I’d be a fool to think all those writers out there became popular published authors by just sitting down and dumping out a perfect story right from the get-go. Writing those two manuscripts was a super important learning experience, though, because I got to create characters and follow them for an entire novel-length journey, then pick them up again for a sequel story. In fact, although the writing was not good, the characters and premise were pretty decent, and as I write this, I’m halfway through a first draft of a rewrite of it.
So once I took 5 months-ish to play around with writing a novel manuscript, I enrolled in some creative writing classes. Then novel writing classes. Then I joined some writing organizations, and started reading TONS of stuff about how to write fiction. I entered contests whenever I could, won a couple little things. I landed literary representation a couple years into my journey. All things considered, I think things happened rather quickly for me, and I swear people, I don’t believe being a serious, successful writer has everything to do with talent. It starts with an affinity for expressing oneself through the written word, then it’s all about putting in the work required to practice, learn, practice, learn some more, meet people, pull on your resources, practice, put yourself out there, and repeat. Of course the talent part is important, because that's where a great story comes from.
Who are your favorite authors?
These are the authors whose books I will continually buy no matter what:
Julie Anne Peters
Zoe Whittall
Shaun David Hutchinson
Nina Lacour
Francesca Lia Block
John Green
Malinda Lo
Hannah Moskowitz
Sara Ryan
Mariko Tamaki
Rainbow Rowell
Alison Bechdel
A.S. rkung
Tess Sharpe
Robin Talley
Gillian Flynn
Emily Danforth
What are your favorite books?
Keeping You a Secret, by Julie Anne Peters: I decided to try my hand at writing because of this book. I found it while randomly picking out YA titles at Chapters (the big Canadian book retailer), and it was like the book was placed into my hands by magic. It had everything I never knew I wanted and needed out of a novel. Since then, I’ve been one of JAP’s biggest fans.
Banana Rose, by Natalie Goldberg: This one came recommended to me by a fellow author friend. I thought there was no way I could’ve fallen hard for a novel when it had been built up so much by another reader. Well I fell insanely hard, and I read it twice in a year. I wish I could take a vacation inside the novel’s world. I don’t know how this novel was created, but there had to be magic involved.
The Witch's Handbook, by Malcolm Bird: This is a picture book I used to borrow from the library over and over when I was young. I was obsessed with it. The art was so freaking mesmerizing in its amazingness. It went out of print years ago (it's a book from the early '80s), so I went years without seeing it. Finally, just when eBay started getting more popular, I found a copy in decent shape and I got the book back. Being a writer, I realized this was the first book I've ever read that contained magic within its pages. I ended up writing Mr. Bird an email a few years ago and he responded! Anyway, it's a shame the book is out of print because it would kick ass even today if kids had access to it.
**Just realized I used the word "magic" in all three descriptions. Maybe that's the key to what makes a novel supremely kick ass.
Do you speak French?
Yes, I do. People are tempted to write my name as “M.E. Girard,” like I’m doing the cool initial thing (maybe even trying to fool people into thinking I’m a man so as to not be dismissed as a female writer…who knows), but the reason the initials are hyphenated is because I have a hyphenated first name, something that’s pretty popular in Quebec. Though I’ve been living in Ontario most of my life, I was born in Quebec, and I still speak French fluently.
Are you ever going to write a novel in French?
I would love to. I think about it often. I’d really love to publish something specifically for the Quebec market. Perhaps one day I will. I’m just not as good in French as I am in English. Although I speak it no problem, and I’m told I don’t have an accent, I just don’t have the same vocabulary. I feel pretty secure in my writing style now that I’ve written English prose for a number of years, and I don’t know how it would feel to sit down and try to write prose in French when I don’t have any style there. Maybe it would be like completely starting from scratch, which would suck.
Are your stories always going to be set in Canada?
As long as I have a say in it, yes. I’ve always felt strongly about that as a writer. We Canadian kids grow up saturated in American culture. Books, TV—the majority of what I was exposed to hailed from the US. I remember watching Saved by the Bell and 90210 and hearing things like “pep rallies” and “freshman” and I understood it all, even though so much of it wasn’t reflected in my own environment. If I was able to read/watch stories about the life of American teenagers and have it be totally relevant to me, then I believe Americans can read my stories about teens in Canada and have it be relevant to them. I don’t go out of my way to insert all of this Canadian stuff into my stories (I don’t believe I write CanLit), but I don’t think I should pick some American suburb to set my stories in when I’m the master of my stories and I decided they happen in Canada. The stories are essentially the same, whether they’re set in Canada or the US—that’s the point I’m trying to make.
Why do you write about teenagers?
Because adults are old and they suck! But for real, because I swear, I don’t remember getting this old. It’s like one minute, my friends and I were meeting up every day after school to hang out and talk about life, and the next minute, I was starting to put money into my retirement fund. I don’t feel any different inside—which is such an old-person thing to say. I know I’m not that old, but I’m over 30 and that’s crazy.
All right, let me reel it back in here and answer the question. I never made the decision to write YA stuff. That’s just what happened, like it wasn’t even a question. I love that everything is new and super important when you’re a teen. I love that everything can suck majorly as well. I had a pretty tame teen experience, but I watched what was going on around me. I saw what it was like for young people who were not me, and I found it all super fascinating. So I take nuggets of my own teen experience, and I mix them with other people’s nuggets, and then I make a whole bunch of stuff up as I think about life and what statements/observations I want to make about it through my stories.
What do you like doing when you’re not writing?
I watch horror movies with my girlfriend. I watch reruns of all the shows and movies I love (because I really like rewatching things). I play video games, too, sort of moving between Xbox 360, WiiU, retro gaming (consoles and emulators), and 3DS. Actually, what I like best is offline co-op gaming with my girlfriend. We yell at each other way too much while it’s going down, but it’s so much fun. Some of my favorite games are: The Last of Us, The Legend of Zelda (all of them), Borderlands, Far Cry, Left4Dead, Halo (all of them), Super Mario (all of them, all systems), Guitar Hero (yeah, for real). I Instagram about that stuff.
Discover Author
M-E Girard
M-E Girard
Biography
M-E Girard lives just outside Toronto, Canada, where she splits her time between writing YA fiction about badass teen girls and working nights as a pediatric nurse. A 2013 and 2015 Lambda Literary Fellow, M-E is a proud feminist who is endlessly fascinated by the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding the concept of gender. You can find her online at www.megirard.com and all over social media.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
M-E Girard: Morris Award Interview
Welcome to this year's Morris Interview series. Today's interview is with M-E Girard.
William C. Morris Award Finalist: Best Young Adult Debut of the Year
All Pen wants is to be the kind of girl she’s always been. So why does everyone have a problem with it? They think the way she looks and acts means she’s trying to be a boy—that she should quit trying to be something she’s not. If she dresses like a girl, and does what her folks want, it will show respect. If she takes orders and does what her friend Colby wants, it will show her loyalty.
But respect and loyalty, Pen discovers, are empty words. Old-world parents, disintegrating friendships, and strong feelings for other girls drive Pen to see the truth—that in order to be who she truly wants to be, she’ll have to man up. (Publisher's description)
Harper Collins, 2016
ISBN 9780062404176
Who were you writing to as you wrote Pen’s story?
I’m not sure I was thinking much about audience while I was writing. Of course I knew I was writing YA, which meant I was creating something primarily for teens. I guess I was most concerned with creating an authentic teen voice and an interesting story meant to be consumed by young people, but knowing how the YA fiction market is, there were (hopefully!) going to be a variety of readers picking up my book. Some part of me hoped the story would reach teens who really identify with Pen, who see their own stories playing out in the book, but I just really wasn’t thinking in specifics during the creation of the story.
In Girl Mans Up, gaming is a shared interest that binds friends together, but it’s also woven into family life. It’s a big part of the relationship between Pen and her brother Johnny; Blake has her own retro ancestry. . . . How did you become interested in gaming? Does it connect you to family and friends? What in the world is retro-gaming?
I was always into gaming. My parents got my sisters and I an NES and a Gameboy when we were little. I also spent many hours PC gaming as a teen. It’s funny because I wouldn’t have considered myself a gamer at that time. I guess many of us were isolated back then (‘80s and early ‘90s) without the internet, and without subscriptions to publications like Nintendo Power, so thinking of gaming as part of my identity didn’t even cross my mind. I just knew I spent a lot of time playing video games, and I carried that into adulthood. It definitely connects me to family and friend. My girlfriend and I bonded over our love of gaming right from the start. We often have game nights when family and friends come over. We’re avid gamers as well as collectors, so we’re hooked up not only to play the latest in console gaming but also to revisit the classics. And that’s what retro gaming is—gaming old school.
When it comes to “manning up” many of the “men” in this story are struggling to measure up to some ideal of masculinity. Who is Pen’s ideal as she grapples with loyalty, competition, and responsibility?
I think Pen is grappling the with the idea that someone, somewhere, decided that certain qualities and characteristics she feels are hers (or should belong to her) actually belong to a group of people she doesn’t belong to—dudes—and can only be performed authentically and correctly by them. Even though it’s not always explicit, she’s always asking questions and making decisions about what masculinity is and what it has to do with gender—it’s a constant deconstruction of the concept. As she progresses through her journey, it turns out all kinds of decent and not-so-decent people in her life actually possess the qualities that make up stereotypical “masculinity,” and they’re not all dudes—plus the ones who are dudes aren’t necessarily these ideally “masculine” dudes anyway. Pen’s ideal has always been her brother Johnny, in terms of behaviour/attitudes and also in terms of appearance and style, but now she realizes there are others she can admire and strive to emulate—she can look at Olivia for her strength, to Blake for her confidence and guts, to Tristan for his loyalty, to Elliott for his quiet presence, etc. In a couple years, someone might ask Pen what masculinity and femininity are, and she might be like, “I don’t know, man. Depends what your definition is, I guess.”
"... she's always asking questions.
It's a constant deconstruction of the concept."
Do you write to music? If so, what did you listen to as you wrote this book?
If I’m at a coffee shop or a library, I’ll blast whatever I have on my iPod or my Spotify playlist on shuffle. It’s usually loud because I want to create this white noise. I don’t listen to anything specific, and I find my ears aren’t really tuning in to the melodies. It can be rock, cheesy pop, or metal—doesn’t really matter because I’m not listening! I couldn’t even tell you what I listened to during the creation of GMU. I get bored of music fast, too, so I probably dumped my entire library and playlists a few times through the course of the GMU writing.
Writing advice in five words or less...
Revise like a mofo!
Do you have a day job? How does it fit with your creative work?
I work full-time nights as a pediatric community nurse. Everything fit in quite nicely when all I had to worry about was writing GMU and going to work. Now things are changing. There is social media, book promotion tasks, tons of emails, travelling, plus I gotta write something else, too! I’m in a transition period right now, I guess, trying to figure out how to make this “published author” gig fit in with my full-time nursing career. Plus there’s all the Netflix and video games I gotta fit into my schedule on top of the other stuff!
Posted by Blythe Woolston at 7:52 PM
M-E Girard
Author of GIRL MANS UP
Interviewed by Megan Labrise on September 6, 2016
In many ways, Canadian high schooler Pen Oliveira is your typical 16-year-old dude: Pen loves gaming with guy friends, raids older brother Johnny’s closet for sweet threads, and has a crush on a wild-haired girl. And if you saw her on the street, you might mistake her for a boy.
“I’m used to people staring at me, trying to figure out what my deal is,” M-E Girard writes in Girl Mans Up. “Ever since I started swiping clothes from my brother Johnny’s closet, people have been reacting differently to me. I used to wear jeans and plain T-shirts and I’ve always hung around guys, so people just figured I was a tomboy, but it’s not like it goes beyond that, and I’m sure it’s not just because Johnny’s clothes are name brand and sweet as hell. I don’t really know what people think I am, or what they think I’m not.”
Gripping, nuanced, and provocative, Girl Mans Up is Girard’s exciting YA fiction debut. The author, who specializes in “YA fiction about badass teen girls,” according to her official bio, lives outside Toronto and works as a pediatric nurse by night. She is a 2013 and 2015 Lambda Literary Fellow who got her start as a serious student of gender in a workshop led by Malinda Lo.
“[I wrote] a very wordy essay to Malinda Lo basically begging to let my sheltered Canadian butt into the Lambda retreat, and I came back exhausted,” Girard says. “I thought I was really open-minded, very open to concepts and understanding [gender], but being a nurse, having that kind of training—anatomy, physiology, psychology—this stuff doesn’t always add up. Ever since then, it’s been an insane amount of reading...especially people putting their own experiences into their own words.”
Continue reading >
Pen doesn’t have the benefits of such an education—nor the vocabulary—to help confront the conflicting new feelings she faces at the start of junior year. She has the unwavering support of her brother, Johnny (“I let nobody else decide what kind of dude I am,” he tells her. “You shouldn’t either.”) and the more conditional support of longterm best friend Cody, a player. But her conservative Portuguese immigrant parents make home a combative environment. Meanwhile, the new school year brings a complicated crush on a girl named Blake.
“I want to be a boyfriend who is a girl,” Girard writes. “I have no idea how to explain that stuff to anyone, let alone a girl I like. I just wish it was already all understood.”
When Blake seems to reciprocate her interest, Pen has to combat the disbelief that such a thing could go right, in light of the public scrutiny she endures.
“Pen, throughout everything, is always ready for things to go bad,” says Girard. “It’s one thing when [Pen and Blake] are alone, but then when they’re going out in public, it changes everything. When is [Blake] going to realize that it’s not positive, not easy? Pen’s always aware of that danger; that’s just how she lives. Those Girard Jacket moments give her confidence but every time she’s out in public, those thoughts are always there.”
Through this new connection and others, Pen continues to build the confidence she needs to unabashedly live the life she wants—in short, to “man up.” Girard hopes that all readers of Girl Mans Up will find themselves somewhere in her story.
“I hope that people will read a story like Pen’s and let it make them think about what it’s like for themselves or for people they come across who might not be exactly the same,” Girard says. “Many people who identify with Pen, who are genderqueer or trans, or cis and not queer at all, and that’s all completely valid. There’s something in there for everybody, if you’re willing to let it open up your mind a little bit, and not get hung up on Pen’s way being the rule for everybody.
“That’s the whole thing about queer YA,” she continues, “because there’s so few books, you might think, this is the book on this kind of identity, here’s all the rules. But no, these are just people. People are imperfect and don’t have the same amount of knowledge. It’s just this person’s story.”
Megan Labrise writes “Field Notes” and features for Kirkus Reviews.
Q&A with M-E Girard, Author of GIRL MANS UP
September 7, 2016Guest Postscontemporary, Girl Mans Up, LGBTQ+ Characters, M-E GirardDiversity in YA
By M-E Girard
M-E Girard’s debut novel, Girl Mans Up, is a coming-of-age story about a queer girl named Pen and what happens when her best friend and parents keep crossing the line—always blaming it on the fact that Pen looks and acts like a boy. It’s about Pen having to make choices about who deserves her respect and loyalty. It’s also about video games, hot girls, guy-code, and Ninja Turtles.
M-E joins us today to answer some hot button questions about identity, queerness, sexuality, and gender.
What is Pen’s identity? What makes her queer?
When I decided to write Pen’s story, I was most interested in exploring gender norms within the binary (man and woman), and how a teen who doesn’t quite fit on their assigned side of that binary might handle what life puts them through. My character, Pen, is not trans. She is cisgender (or simply “cis”), which means her gender identity is in line with the one she was assigned at birth.
What makes Pen queer is her sexual orientation: she is a girl who is attracted to other girls. Her gender expression and presentation complicate things, because she is also a girl who doesn’t look and act according to contemporary North American ideas about what a girl should look and act like. In fact, she very much conforms to our society’s ideas about what a boy should look and act like.
How much awareness does Pen have when it comes to her identity and queerness?
Pen knows very little about things like the gender binary, non-binary-identified people, transness, the concept of self-identifying, or even queerness. She just hasn’t been that curious about it, and definitely doesn’t have anyone in her life who would facilitate these kinds of conversations. This makes it really hard for her to understand what she’s dealing with. It makes her doubt herself because she doesn’t feel smart enough to “know what she’s talking about.” Words empower us, they help us understand what’s going on around us and within ourselves. Words give us the ability and confidence to work through our feelings and speak about our lives—they validate our existence. I know for myself, my
understanding of queerness and where I fit within it changed and evolved the more I learned about it: listening to other people talk about their queerness, reading theory books, reading novels featuring queer voices, etc.
Still, Pen has a strong sense of self—she’s been that way since she was very little. She’s presented herself in the way that felt natural, and she resisted the pushback she was getting, even as a kid. The older she gets, the more this pushback upsets her. She faces near-constant criticism and policing of the way she performs her “girlness.” She feels very dissatisfied with what it seems to mean to be a girl, and she doesn’t believe that all her masculine characteristics belong only to boys.
She knows everyone thinks she’s “not doing it right.” Part of her wants to redefine what being a girl means, but the other part—the part that feels beaten down by the criticism and judgment—feels like maybe she’s hanging on to an identity that she has no claim to. She wonders if she’s going to wake up one day and realize she was something or someone else altogether, and everyone around her knew it all along.
Was Pen always going to be a lesbian?
Yes. I could have told the story from the point of view of a heterosexual, cis Pen, because all of the gender expression stuff wasn’t dependent on Pen being a lesbian, but her being attracted to other girls was something that was important to me for a few reasons: I have always had a soft spot for girls like Pen, and since the inspiration for her came from my girlfriend (who obviously like girls!), Pen was always going to be attracted to girls. Her sexual orientation was also important because I wanted to explore the fact that the way a queer person looks—how identifiably queer they look—will often determine how much and what kind of negative reactions and treatment they’ll get from others. Pen learns that it’s not the fact that she likes girls that makes her stand out; it’s the fact that she looks the way she does.
You talk a lot about language, so why use sexist expressions like “man up”?
I write about real people, and we real people are not always all that pretty to listen to or watch, are we?! Realistically, a lot of people use these sexist words and expressions—often without even realizing what they’re saying. So with GMU I wanted to incorporate this into the story; I wanted to show the seeds of awareness, when it comes to language, being planted within this character’s consciousness.
Pen manning up never had anything to do with acting like a man. Just like Pen decides certain clothes and behaviors don’t belong exclusively to certain genders, she also realizes the definition of “manning up,” the actions and behaviors that constitute “manning up,” don’t belong to one gender in particular, and don’t describe one gender in particular either.
Anyone who reads GMU will hopefully see my attempts to complicate some of the sexist and misogynistic terms and expressions I used. In this story, words are tested on their meanings, and they’re assigned new meanings as Pen experiences life and decides what is true and what isn’t. It happens with the sexist/misogynistic words and expressions the same way it happens with words like respect, loyalty, friend, family. Pen’s whole world is shifting, and part of that shift involves the language she uses and the ways she understands those terms.
Does GMU engage with trans* issues?
I did not write about a trans character, but I did write about issues that affect gender-nonconforming cis people and trans people, often in very similar ways. Pen is a girl, and for the duration of the story, she struggles to retain the right to be who she says she is. She feels like the world is pushing her out of her identity as a girl because the way she expresses her gender is more in line with being a boy or being neither. There are similarities between the narratives of some trans people and some gender-nonconforming cis people. Pen deals with things like daily microaggressions, being misgendered, and bathroom issues. She may even be dealing with some form of gender dysphoria, depending on what one’s definition of the term is.
I hope many readers will be able to relate to Pen’s struggles—trans, cis, queer, non-queer, and straight alike.
Girl Mans Up
Claire E. Gross
The Horn Book Magazine. 92.6 (November-December 2016): p73.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
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Girl Mans Up
by M-E Girard
High School HarperTeen 377 pp.
9/16 978-0-06-240417-6 $17.99
e-book ed. 978-0-06-240419-0 $9.99
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Pen (short for Penelope) struggles to make sense of family pressures, turbulent friendships, and first romance in this slice-of-life coming-of-age novel from debut author Girard. As a girl whose gender expression does not fit into conventional categories--her fauxhawk and boys' clothes confuse people--Pen reflects, "I'm not a boy, but I don't want to be that girl either. I just want everyone to ... let me do my own thing." Pen's struggle for self-definition plays out in three braided plotlines: tensions rise between her and her traditional Portuguese-immigrant parents after her older brother, whom she idolizes, moves out. Her longtime friend Colby, who has served as a social shield for her at school, becomes controlling, cruel, and creepy when Pen starts to question his treatment of other girls (in a particularly uncomfortable scene, he pressures Pen for sex). Finally, Pen starts dating classmate Blake and helping her with a photography class project that also underlines many of the novel's themes. Although Pen's parents skate a bit too close to immigrant stereotypes, and Blake's character is somewhat generic, Girard nevertheless offers an original, impressively nuanced drama built on themes of identity, respect, and the desire to be recognized for who you are.
Girard, M-E.: Girl Mans Up
Allison Babin
Voice of Youth Advocates. 39.4 (Oct. 2016): p60.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
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4Q * 4P * S
Girard, M-E. Girl Mans Up. HarperTeen, 2016. 384p. $17.99. 978-0-06-240417-6.
Pen, a high school junior of Portuguese descent, wears her brother's clothes and kicks butt at video games. When Pen discovers Olivia (a former fling of Pen's longtime best friend, Colby), throwing up at school, it sparks a chain of discoveries about Colby's real character. Simultaneously, Pen experiences all the confusion, excitement, and passion of a first relationship with Blake, a lively, beautiful girl. Pen does not feel that she is exactly a guy or a girl, but one thing is certain: she does not feel that she is someone she should not be. The way other people (especially her mother) treat her, however, makes her feel like something is wrong with her.
Girl Mans Up makes a much needed contribution to young adult literature by introducing a vibrant character whose identity falls outside of the gender binary. Sexual details in the book serve to advance the character development, as Pen works out how to engage in a way that corresponds with her identity, and are part of a healthy, consensual relationship with Blake. Girard creates a fully fleshed-out, complex character in Pen that readers of myriad gender and sexual identities will relate to for a variety of reasons. This debut novel is not only Pen's story of developing a deeper self-confidence, but also one of changing friendships, family roles, and romance. The titular message of "manning up" is not restricted to its implied gender; for Pen, it means doing the right thing not only for others, but for one's self.--Allison Babin.
Girl Mans Up
Reinhardt Suarez
Booklist. 112.22 (Aug. 1, 2016): p63.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
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Girl Mans Up. By M-E Girard. Sept. 2016.384p. HarperTeen, $17.99 (9780062404176). Gr. 9-12.
Playing video games and chasing girls with her all-boy crew--that's a typical afternoon for Penelope "Pen" Oliveira. Beneath her tough facade, however, she's struggling to balance being queer, being a first-generation Portuguese immigrant, and being a loyal friend. That loyalty is tested when she discovers her best friend Colby's secret--he's gotten a girl pregnant and is shirking responsibility. At the same time, Pen's relationship with her very traditional parents deteriorates when they find her kissing Blake, a fellow gamer girl. Pen decides that she needs to "man up" if she's going to survive. Pen's story is about struggling between worlds. She identifies with being a boy, yet knows she's a girl. She is Portuguese through and through, but also sees the world with American eyes. Despite a few characters who feel a bit strained, Girard shows tremendous skill in depicting multidimensional and empathetic characters. Books starring queer girls are still relatively few, so this is a fantastic addition to a steadily growing collection of strong YA narratives for queer youth.--Reinhardt Suarez
Suarez, Reinhardt
Girl Mans Up
Publishers Weekly. 263.30 (July 25, 2016): p78.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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* Girl Mans Up
M-E Girard. HarperTeen, $17.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-240417-6
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In this powerful debut, Girard explores questions of family, friendship, loyalty, and identity through the voice of Pen Oliveira, a 16-year old girl who's "not into dudes," looks and dresses like a boy, and doesn't "get why it's such a big deal to people, the way I am." The second child of conservative Portuguese parents who immigrated to Ontario, Pen has long felt accepted and protected by her older brother, Johnny, and her childhood friend Colby, who treats her like one of the guys. With Colby increasingly acting like "an entitled jerk," especially toward girls, Pen confronts difficult choices about where. her loyalty lies. New friendships with Colby's ex Olivia and a girl named Blake, who shares Pen's love of gaming and wants to be her girlfriend, make her reconsider the meaning of respect, which her parents have always demanded. Girard forcefully conveys the fear Pen lives with, having experienced frequent mockery and bullying, and her courage in aspiring to a safe, loving community for herself and her friends. Ages 14-up. Agent: Linda Epstein, Emerald City Literary. (Sept.)
Girard, M-E.: Girl Mans Up
Jaclyn Anderson
School Library Journal. 62.7 (July 2016): p82.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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* GIRARD, M-E. Girl Mans Up. 384p. ebook available. HarperCollins/HarperTeen. Sept. 2016. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780062404176.
Gr 9 Up--The expression man up refers to many things. It suggests that "real men" take responsibility for their actions. Real men act bravely in the face of adversity. For Pen (short for Penelope), 16, it is a little more complicated than that. She has a difficult time knowing how to man up when she cannot even classify her own gender identity. For her, the LGBTQ lexicon carries too much cultural baggage and too many expectations. Pen does not want to define herself too closely, especially when everything in her world seems to be crashing down around her. Her best friend Colby has recently become a terrible bully, her parents are more and more unsupportive, and her older brother has been kicked out of the house. On a positive note, her crush, Blake, has taken an interest in her. Pen tries to navigate all of this, while still figuring out who that person is staring back at her from the mirror. This is a fresh title in the growing sea of LGBTQ YA literature. Pen and her peers are neither quirky nor whimsical. They cuss, drink, smoke pot, hook up, and get into fights. There is no sugarcoating in this very real portrayal of an aspect of teen life that many experience. VERDICT Recommended for fans of YA urban fiction as well as those who prefer grittier LGBTQ lit.--Jaclyn Anderson, Madison County Library System, MS
KEY: * Excellent in relation to other titles on the same subject or In the same genre Tr Hardcover trade binding | RTE Reinforced trade binding | lib. ed. Publisher's library binding Board Board book | pap. Paperback | e eBook original | BL Bilingual | POP Popular Picks
KEY: * Excellent in relation to other titles on the same subject or In the same genre Tr Hardcover trade binding | RTE Reinforced trade binding | lib. ed. Publisher's library binding Board Board book | pap. Paperback | e eBook original | BL Bilingual | POP Popular Picks
KEY: * Excellent in relation to other titles on the same subject or In the same genre Tr Hardcover trade binding | RTE Reinforced trade binding | lib. ed. Publisher's library binding Board Board book | pap. Paperback | e eBook original | BL Bilingual | POP Popular Picks
Kirkus Star
GIRL MANS UP
by M-E Girard
Best of 2016
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KIRKUS REVIEW
A teen faces down hostility, making her own decisions about loyalty, respect, and gender.
Sixteen-year-old Pen (not Penelope) has always been butch, including her habit of wearing her brother’s clothes even though her mother says it makes her look like a “punk druggy.” Old friend Colby, who accepted her gender presentation when they were 9, now insists that everyone around him prove loyalty through service: one guy procures weed, another does Colby’s homework, and Pen’s his wingman with girls. Pen’s awkward, volatile, and abrupt—and confused about loyalty—but Colby’s a real jerk. Then a girl named Blake with “crazy blond hair…and a lot of black makeup” falls for Pen, and they have a hot romance. To Colby’s menacing fury, Pen also befriends his most recent castoff, Olivia, even accompanying Olivia to her abortion. Pen’s parents say the ongoing gender persecution she endures is her own fault, castigating her in (italicized) Portuguese and broken English, making home life unbearable—until Pen decides for herself what respeito (respect) really means. The good things in her life, she realizes, are Blake, Olivia, video games, the supportive older brother who helps her leave home—and her gender identity, which (though unlabeled) is squarely in the nonbinary range. Pen’s family is Portuguese and, like most other characters, presumably white; Olivia’s “Asian” with no further designation.
A strong genderqueer lesbian character, imperfect, independent, and deserving of every cheer. (Fiction. 14 & up)
Pub Date: Sept. 6th, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-240417-6
Page count: 384pp
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: June 22nd, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1st, 2016
Review: M-E Girard's Girl Mans Up stellar debut novel captures the complexity of gender and adolescence
SHANNON OZIRNY
Special to The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Sep. 30, 2016 6:30PM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Dec. 01, 2016 5:31PM EST
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Title Girl Mans Up
Author M-E Girard
Genre youngAdult
Publisher HarperCollins
Pages 384
Price $19.99
Gender is weird. It reaches peak weirdness in adolescence and M-E Girard’s stellar debut novel captures the complexity of it all. Sixteen-year-old Pen lives in a Toronto suburb with her Portuguese parents and older brother. She’s crazy lovable in her normalcy: She’s obsessed with video games and “douche” is an integral part of her vocabulary. This is the story of her increasingly complicated world: cutting her hair, falling for another girl and navigating male friendships with her tough but warm soul. It’s an unassuming coming-of-age story about gender and sexuality that barely mentions labels, has no agenda and takes unexpected but genuine turns. It’s also a universal story because we’re all striving for the place where we can confidently say, as Pen does, “I don’t feel wrong inside myself.”
September 2016
GIRL MANS UP
Being honest about self identity
BookPage review by Sharon Verbeten
Sixteen-year-old Penelope, known as Pen, is a Portuguese girl who wears black, talks tough and struggles with who she is. She knows she’s a girl, but even though she doesn’t want to be girly, she doesn’t want to be a boy either. Pen’s identity crisis is one of the central issues of Girl Mans Up, but debut author M-E Girard takes the tale well beyond the stereotypical comments from Pen’s peers.
Pen not only learns to survive typical teenage problems, such as volatile, fickle friendships and old-school parents who try to turn her into someone she’s not, but also navigates the questions and expectations of her own sexuality and gender fluidity.
With raw, honest dialogue and vivid characterizations, Girl Mans Up will resonate beyond its intended audience. Many readers will identify with Pen, who wants more than anything to be allowed to be herself. Fortunately, the beautiful girl of Pen’s dreams sees beyond stereotypes to forge a true romantic relationship.
The truths that teens hold in their hearts—and the ones they sometimes show to the world—can be scary. “People should just be allowed to look in the mirror and see all kinds of possibilities,” Girard writes. “They should at least be able to see themselves reflected in there, even if they look all weird.”
Thanks to Girard, hopefully more students will be able to look inward and show respect outward as they embrace all differences.
This article was originally published in the September 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.