CALL ME NATHAN: graphic novel delicately unravels trans teen experience

Catherine Castro’s graphic novel Call Me Nathan, illustrated by Quentin Zuttion, frankly but delicately tells the story of Nathan. Assigned female at birth, Nathan is not only dealing with the nuances of his own identity and sexuality, but also the unfair responsibility that trans folk are often placed under to make everyone else in his life understand it too.

The author writes in the preface about why she chose to write this story, which is rooted in her experience meeting a young boy called Lucas going through a similarly tumultuous time with his identity, the gender he was assigned at birth, and his family struggling to understand where their “daughter” went.

Though at times Call Me Nathan reads like it was written by someone without very much lived experience of the topic, which in some ways it was, it is also written with a YA audience in mind. Perhaps, indeed, its simplicity is the key and that by removing questions and maintaining absolute truths (such as, “I know who I am inside”), will help readers who find themselves craving some clarity around the topic, if not just an outstretched hand that says, “You’re not alone”.