Rachel's Story

I'm an award-winning children's poet (formerly a trained special needs teacher) who had an established and well-respected career in children's publishing. As someone with personal, parental & professional experience of autism I have been long concerned about the number of autistic children identifying & rejecting their sexed bodies. After careful consideration, in 2019 I released a picture book My Body is Me!, illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg and published with TransgenderTrend. This book had a simple rhyming text encouraging very young children to appreciate what their bodies can do for them & was entirely inclusive. Upon its release, I received considerable public opposition from fellow authors & librarians who deemed it (and me) 'transphobic' without having even read it. Calls were made to remove me from the agency who employed me into schools and my previous works were also targeted. I had no public or private support from my union, The Society of Authors, or from the publishers and marketing agency with whom I'd worked. My latterly published books were subsequently ignored by reviewers, literacy agencies & former colleagues and my work gradually dried up. I was effectively ghosted by almost everyone within the industry - though I did receive some private messages of support from fellow authors & illustrators. I now no longer write or publish and now work part-time as a carer.

Rachel Rooney