Pamela Morgan: Hi, my name is Pamela Morgan. I am the author of Simply Skye, illustrated by Heather Bell and published by Amicus Publishing.

My oldest, who is now almost 16, was assigned female at birth, and very early on, about three or four years old, started telling us, at that time, that they were a boy. Really what they were saying was they were not a girl, but we didn't have any language for that. And of course we thought, "Well, it's probably a phase." We didn't restrict their clothing or hair, but it was very confusing for family. I come from a very big family, and my oldest has a lot of cousins that were around their age.

So around the age of seven, when they started socially transitioning, I wrote a story to try to help everybody understand what was going on, and that was the very first draft of what is now Simply Skye. It was only intended for my nieces and nephews, family that wanted to share it, or friends of my child. I wanted to create a story that was inclusive of gender expression, identity, and exploration. It wasn't specifically non-binary.

When my child transitioned to non-binary around the age of 14, I was like, "Wait, I wrote a story about this. Do you remember?" And I pulled it out. We read it together and they were like, "This is the story I needed when I was a kid on the bookshelves. You need to get this published." And then I started that journey.

I hope that we move towards a society where gender expression identity is encouraged, where exploring our gender is not something that is looked down on or deemed "bad parenting." I'm using air quotes because I think historically that is what has been the case. And I think that we need to encourage our kids that it's okay to not feel one way or the other, to not always feel one way or the other. And I hope that books like this keep coming out and keep teaching parents as well as kids, because I think we have to change the way we view things, right?

I'm going to read from the book.

" 'She's a girl doll. I'll prove it.' That's my sister, Angela. And sometimes I let her dress Skye in tiaras and gowns. I dress up too, and we do all the things my sister says are she things. But Skye isn't a girl.

'He's a boy doll. I'll prove it.' That's my brother Andrew. And sometimes I let him dress Skye in pirate clothes and army camo, and I dress up too, and we do all the things my brother says are he things. But Skye isn't a boy."