Conservative Christians prophesied after the Obergefell decision transgenderism and polygamy would be next. As if on que, Bruce Jenner came out as “Caitlyn” Jenner and put transgender rights and activists in the spotlight. What I do not believe anyone predicted was the surge in gender dysphoria in teenage girls.
Abigail Schier investigated the issue of sudden onset gender dysphoria specifically in teenage girls. She takes an in depth look into the girls, their parents, and the schools. She does not hesitate getting into the nitty gritty details about the negative effects of being on testosterone long term and of some of the regrets from top surgery.
Even though Abigail is speaking up about the devastating effects of transition, you do not get the feeling that she hates these girls who are transitioning. Throughout her book she makes the point that she is trying to warn girls and parents. She advocates for there to be more barriers and hoops to jump through for minors before they can access gender reassignment surgery and testosterone (in some states without parental consent at the age of fifteen, mind you). She is not opposed to adult transition after a long therapeutic process.
That being said, I hope that you can tell that she is not coming from a Christian worldview. If she had been coming from a Christian worldview, I think that it would have been even better, but that is why authors like Nancy Pearcey and her book, “Love Thy Body” exist. Despite Schrier not coming from a Christian worldview, her book is still profoundly insightful in how these seemingly normal teenage girls almost overnight seem to come out of the closet proclaiming that they are boys.
One of these insights that helped me understand how girls would get sucked into was the effects of testosterone. The main positive effect of testosterone (parents pay attention carefully to this because the YouTube stars are selling testosterone to your daughters with this point) is that it helps the anxiety go away. As someone who personally struggles with anxiety, if you had told me that there was this magical hormone without telling me any of the side effects, I would be tempted to jump on board with it. Anxiety is a growing problem among teenagers in the digital age of social media.
Social media is a major part of the transgender trend. Anxiety is a symptom that I think most people can attest to after spending hours on social media. For girls, social media can be a complete nightmare. Photoshopped pictures of beauty standards that they can never achieve fill their Instagram feeds. These beauty standards and images of women that girls see in porn make them think that they are not feminine enough to be a woman. Honestly, it is hard not to blame them. Insecurity is almost guaranteed after spending anytime scrolling through TikTok and Instagram seeing other women my age who have seemingly perfect bodies and perfect makeup.
The last aspect that I wanted to cover was her research into the schools. If you have already spent sometime in conservative media and specifically on the trans issue, you have likely heard of the stories where children can request that their teachers and classmates call them by their new name and new pronouns.
I could cover many more aspects of the book, but these were some of the vital points and insights. I highly recommend that every parent read this book and anyone of college age.
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