ABSTRACT
Memoirs serve as an important genre for learning about the lived experiences of youth, especially relative to coming-of-age narratives and stories of negotiating expressions of gender and sexuality within an individual’s culture and within society. Memoirs also serve as a significant site for youth and adults to examine the socially constituted (or alternatively, naturally occurring) nature of gender and sexuality. This chapter suggests there are two important points to think about when youth engage with memoirs written by other youth for youth. First, it is important that youth be introduced to basic tenets of queer theory so they can read and analyze memoirs to undermine restrictive gender and sexuality binaries. Second, supplemental learning materials such as news articles or state laws relative to LGBTQ-identified people can help youth engage with the context surrounding the memoir, such as the contested topics of gender and sexuality in contemporary society.
