One Day I'll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman: A Story of Motherhood and Transgender Rights in Rural

Abi Maxwell was born and raised in rural New Hampshire, in the small mill town where her family had lived for generations. She grew up as one of eight children, and her parents were divorced and skating the edge of poverty. But her childhood was marked by the wonder of the landscape: long afternoons skiing the mountains, a cottage on the lake, accessible by a clunky old boat that broke down every summer.

As an adult, Maxwell moves into the ranch house that once belonged to her grandparents, and she and her husband start a family of their own. But when their six-year-old, known to the world as a boy, wears pink sneakers, grows her hair long, and announces that she is a girl, the community turns their back on her, attempting to ban the young child from their bathrooms, their books, their sports teams. Weaving the story of Maxwell's own youth with the story of her fight against the school board, state lawmakers, and her neighbors, she unspools a riveting tale of gender identity, class, and the soul of rural America.