My Own Way

My Own Way is a poem and a picture book that introduces very young children to the wonder of gender diversity. Why feel limited to his or hers, blue or pink, football or ballet?

Small children are often asked to choose between a gendered binary - boy or girl, pink or blue. This colourful picture book smashes these stereotypes and encourages the reader to follow their own way!"Girl or Boy?" What brings you joy? "Pink or blue?" It's up to you.

With vibrant illustrations and concise, poetic text, this powerful book teaches young children that there are no limits in what you can do and who you can be. You are unique!

Translated from the original Portuguese by award-winning transgender poet Jay Hulme, My Own Way is an important, timely and beautiful celebration of identity, difference, and respect.

About the Authors

Joana Estrela is an illustrator and author living in Porto, Portugal. She studied Communication Design in Porto's Fine Art Faculty, and still lives and works next door to the school. In 2014, Plana published her first book: a graphic novel called Propaganda. In 2016, Planeta Tangerina published Mana, the winner of the 1st Serpa International Award for Picture Books. The book received the award for Best Illustration of a Picturebook (Portuguese Author) at the Amadora BD comics festival, the same year.

Jay Hulme is an award-winning transgender performance poet, speaker, writer and educator. Alongside his writing and regular performances, he teaches in schools and consults and speaks at events and conferences on the importance of diversity in the media, and more specifically transgender inclusion and rights. He writes poetry for children and young adults, and the five-poet collection Rising Stars, of which he was a part, was Highly Commended in the 2018 CLiPPA awards - the UK's biggest award for children's poetry collections. His collection, Clouds Cannot Cover Us was nominated for the 2021 Carnegie Medal.