Girlmode
A Graphic Novel
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5.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A 2025 Lambda Award Finalist and named one of the Best Books of 2024 by Kirkus!
A recently transitioned girl tries to figure out who she is—while trying to manage who everyone else wants her to be—in this funny, unexpected, and affecting new graphic novel from Eisner-nominated writer Magdalene Visaggio and artist Paulina Ganucheau.
The last thing Phoebe Zito wants is to be noticed. The newest kid at Sally Ride High School, newly arrived in Los Angeles, and newly transitioned, she's just trying to blend in while she figures out exactly who she is. But with her mom checked out, her dad still adjusting to having a daughter, and no guidebook on how to be a girl, that isn't going to be easy.
Enter Mackenzie Ishikawa. She’s the girl who all girls want to be, and all the boys want to be with—and, Mackenzie has decided, Phoebe's new best friend. Mackenzie knows what it takes to survive and thrive as a girl in high school, most of all that no matter who Phoebe wants to be, or who she wants to date, she's going to need someone having her back.
Phoebe soon realizes what Mackenzie knows too well: Being true to yourself is going to mean breaking some hearts. But as Phoebe discovers what kind of girl she is—and what kind of girl everyone around her thinks she's supposed to be—she worries one of those hearts will be her own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Phoebe Zito—a geeky white transgender girl with no friends, a neglectful mother, and a father who's trying his best ("My dad's a good guy")—has just moved to L.A. for a "fresh start." At her new school, she befriends fellow geek Ben Wheelock, portrayed with pale skin and brown hair, but is soon swept up by a popular crew led by Japanese American Mackenzie Ishikawa, who shows Phoebe "how to be a girl." But even as her social life expands, Phoebe's romantic endeavors are fraught with transmisogyny, homophobia, and classic toxic bro behavior. And when it seems that Mackenzie is trying to turn Phoebe into someone she's not, Phoebe feels like she's back at square one trying to figure out who she is in a world that seems against her. Organic dialogue by Visaggio (The Ojja-Wojja) and poppy animated art by Ganucheau (Lemon Bird) combine for a must-read that portrays one teenage girl's struggles to find—and stand up for—herself. An emphasis on the various forms transmisogyny can take is balanced by depictions of young people making amends for their actions. Ages 14–up.
