Today on the site, I’m thrilled to reveal the cover for Athlete is Agender, an exciting upcoming nonfiction Middle Grade anthology about queer and trans athletes edited by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby and releasing from Christy Ottaviano Books on May 13, 2025! Here to talk about it are Katherine and Nicole:
We are so grateful to Dahlia and LGBTQ Reads for hosting the cover reveal for Athlete is Agender! If you didn’t know, Dahlia was the spark behind our first anthology together, This is Our Rainbow.
It seems that every time we decide to edit an anthology together, it starts with someone else saying, “Have you ever thought about…?” This time, it happened to be Katherine’s dad.
After reading the first anthology we worked on together, This is Our Rainbow, Katherine’s dad read A. J. Sass’s story about a nonbinary gymnast-turned-parkour athlete and said, paraphrased, “I really loved this story. When I was a kid, some of the first queer people I ‘knew’ were famous athletes. I feel like I don’t see that much in books, where queer people are athletic and strong. I wish we saw more of that.”
That one comment sparked an entire journey, and we began reflecting on our own history with sports and as athletes. For Nicole, though she didn’t know it then, she’s since realized that the sports she had played when she was younger were full of queer kids that had somehow come together as a team without knowing. Something about those sports—basketball, softball, field hockey—had created its own comfort of found family within the team dynamic before any of them knew they needed it. And for Katherine, in retrospect, it’s clear why they gravitated to sports like equestrian sports, the only Olympic sport where all genders compete equally against each other. It was through moving their body, and in the pursuit of being a better rider, that they came to terms with their queer body, just as it was.
For queer kids, belonging to a sport can feel like home, but it’s still something we’re constantly fighting for. According to The Trevor Project, although nearly one in three LGBTQ young people reported participating in sports, a number of LGBTQ youth have said they chose not to due to discrimination or fear. More and more, transgender athletes are being banned and scrutinized, toxic masculinity in male sports makes it difficult for queer men to feel safe enough to be out, and sports tend to be separated by gender making it hard for nonbinary athletes to find their place. Sometimes queer kids who belong to one sport find themselves needing to find a new home because of these gender norms and rules.
Still, there’s something powerful about breaking out of stereotypes, that queer kids can be strong, athletic champions on the field, in the rink, or in the pool. There’s something special about a player using they/them pronouns on an Olympic field, or watching two married teammates win a WNBA championship, or watching a male soccer player opening up despite the toxic culture of his sport to say, “I’m gay.”
We are everywhere, we deserve to be everywhere, and we can excel everywhere.
And here’s the sporty cover, illustrated by Jess Vosseteig (who illustrated the book as well) and designed by Jenny Kimura, who provided the interior art direction as well! (Not pictured: interior design by Carla Weise.)
Athlete is agender. Athlete can mean anyone.
In a world where gender norms inform the rules of inclusion and safety for LGBTQ+ kids and adult professionals in sports, here is a groundbreaking collection that celebrates the affirming sense of community that comes from being a proud queer athlete.
Find your strength in…
- Adam Rippon’s unbelievable journey from figure-skating Olympic alternate to the first openly gay Olympic medalist in his sport.
- CeCé Telfer’s career as a trans track star and her unwavering commitment to run for the future freedom of trans athletes.
- em dickson’s relationship to eir gender identity and how sailing, a sport that doesn’t categorize athletes by gender, helped em embrace eir power and identity.
…and many other invaluable true stories.
Featuring testimonies by world-class athletes and award-winning children’s book authors, as well as profiles on culture-defining figures like Megan Rapinoe and Billie Jean King, this incredible collection revels in the achievements of strong, passionate, and determined queer athletes across every age, level, and field of sports. Athlete Is Agender is a lifesaving book not to be missed.
