Young Adult Author
Welcome!
M-E Girard‘s debut GIRL MANS UP (September 2016, HarperTeen | HarperCollins Canada) was a Lambda Literary Award winner and a William C . Morris YA Debut Award finalist. She lives just outside of Toronto, Canada, where she splits her time between writing YA fiction, being a mom, and working as a registered nurse. M-E dedicated the bulk of her nursing career to working with special-needs kids, and more recently, she was an ER and ICU nurse during the first waves of the pandemic. A 2013 and 2015 Lambda Literary Fellow, M-E is a proud feminist who is endlessly fascinated with what it means to be a girl–especially a queer, fat girl. Her followup novel, THEN EVERYTHING HAPPENS AT ONCE (HarperTeen) released in January 2023. You can find her online at www.megirard.com and all over social media.
WHAT’S NEW!
- TEHAO part of HCCMarchMadness, a book competition in partnership with Kobo Canada! Vote for TEHAO between March 10-24, 2024!
- Paperbacks for TEHAO released in February 2024
- Then Everything Happens at Once released on January 31, 2023!
- TEHAO on Lambda Literary’s list of most-anticipated LGBTQIA+ literature.
- A letter to readers of TEHAO.
- Reviews are in for TEHAO from PW and Kirkus!
- FAQ: Must you read Girl Mans Up first to be able to read Then Everything Happens at Once? Read M’E’s post to find out!
THEN EVERYTHING HAPPENS AT ONCE
January 2023, HarperTeen | Harpercollins
From the Lambda award-winning author of Girl Mans Up comes an empowering, sex-positive coming-of-age story about a teen exploring first love and desire, as her rocky relationship with her own body and a pandemic threaten to sabotage everything. Perfect for fans of Fat Chance, Charlie Vega and Cool for the Summer.
Baylee has never been kissed but she wants to do way more than that. She’s had a huge crush on her gorgeous best friend and neighbor Freddie for years, but since she doesn’t look like his usual type, the judgmental voice in her head tells her he’ll never see her as more than a friend. It feels like she’ll spend the rest of high school fantasizing on the sidelines while everyone else dates and hooks up.
Then Baylee meets Alex online and she starts to fall for this sweet, funny barista who likes her just as she is. It’s new, electric, and all-consuming to be around Alex. But when Freddie makes a move on Baylee and a virus shuts the world down, Baylee finds herself torn. Everything is happening at once, and she is left navigating the messy waters of love and desire. It helps that she’s observed her friends’ relationship drama, so she knows exactly what mistakes not to make . . . right?
This sophomore novel from M-E Girard centers a fat, confident girl going after what she wants and learning to love herself along the way.
GIRL MANS UP
September 2016, HarperTeen | Harpercollins Canada
“A strong genderqueer lesbian character, imperfect, independent, and deserving of every cheer.”
~ Kirkus Reviews
All Pen wants is to be the kind of girl she’s always been. So why does everyone have a problem with it? They think the way she looks and acts means she’s trying to be a boy—that she should quit trying to be something she’s not. If she dresses like a girl, and does what her folks want, it will show respect. If she takes orders and does what her friend Colby wants, it will show her loyalty. But respect and loyalty, Pen discovers, are empty words. Old-world parents, disintegrating friendships, and strong feelings for other girls drive Pen to see the truth–that in order to be who she truly wants to be, she’ll have to man up.
GIRL MANS UP is about a queer teen named Pen who realizes the only way she’ll get people off her back is by standing up for herself–even if that means her relationships with her friends and her family get messed up in the process. It’s also about a gender-nonconforming teen who struggles to own her identity as a girl when she looks and acts like a boy and everyone around her expects her to be one or the other.
