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1-Page Summary of If I Was Your Girl
Overall Summary
Meredith Russo’s 2016 young adult novel If I Was Your Girl focuses on the experiences of a teenage girl going through her senior year in a new school where she must navigate both the standard challenges of an eighteen-year-old’s life and also the repercussions of being trans. The book addresses a topic that is rarely addressed with sensitivity, as well as first person knowledge from Russo herself about her own experience with being transgender.
Amanda Hardy moves from Atlanta, Georgia to live with her father in Lambertville. She is starting senior year of high school at the beginning of the novel. The plot consists of two time frames: Amanda’s life before moving and her present day.
Amanda is a transgendered person, born male but identifying as female. With the help of her parents and hormone therapy, she was able to get surgery to complete her transition.
Amanda is lucky in some ways, but she also has a lot of problems. Amanda’s friend Virginia is transgender and has had to deal with a lot of issues regarding her gender identity. However, Amanda is fortunate because she was born with the physical characteristics that make it easier for her to pass as female. Still, even though Amanda doesn’t have to worry about bullying like Virginia does, she still gets bullied at school and becomes depressed after an attack in the bathroom at a mall. Her parents decide that moving away from Atlanta will help solve this problem and give them the opportunity to start over somewhere else together.
Amanda, who is transgender, moves to a new town and decides not to tell anyone about her past. She makes friends with Anna, Layla, and Chloe. They’re happy that Amanda is pretty and fun. Amanda also meets Bee at school; they both feel comfortable talking to each other because they are LGBTQ (lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer).
Amanda starts dating Grant, a handsome and kind football player. As they fall in love, Amanda tells him about her past as a trans woman. He’s not surprised by the news but is hurt that she didn’t trust him enough to tell him herself.
Despite all of these positive interactions, Amanda’s father is worried that she will end up trusting the wrong person with her past. Amanda sticks up for the love she and Grant share, as well as Grant’s new “promposal.” She goes shopping with her friends before homecoming. Her friends nominate her for homecoming queen.
Amanda is crowned homecoming queen. Later in the evening, she’s confronted by a drunk Bee who aggressively comes on to her. Amanda rejects her and tells everyone that Bee was born Andrew.
Amanda is shocked and heartbroken when she sees Grant dancing with another girl at the dance. She runs away from the party, followed by a tongue-tied Grant. Amanda walks home alone, where she’s attacked by another football player named Parker who mocks her and then sexually assaults her. Chloe and Layla find them, scare Parker off before taking Amanda home to her dad’s house. There, Amanda’s dad assumes that it was Grant who hurt his daughter; he storms off to confront him while the girls follow behind because they want to make sure everything is okay between those two boys since they’re friends as well as classmates in school together.
Amanda is horrified by the whole situation with Grant and decides to return to Atlanta. But when she gets back, she realizes that she wants to finish out her senior year in Lambertville. She returns just as warmly as before, welcomed by friends who are glad to have her back. The novel ends with Amanda and Grant talking about their future together, still unsure of what it will be like for them next year.
