Creating Trans Characters Without Tokenism: A Craft Guide
Because we deserve more than a subplot and a stereotype.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read a book where a trans character is introduced only to either educate the protagonist, disappear after two scenes, or become a walking trauma dump. These portrayals aren’t just disappointing—they’re damaging.
Trans readers deserve characters who are real, nuanced, and not written solely for cis readers to learn something.
This post is for cis writers who want to do better, and for trans writers who are reclaiming space on the page. Let’s break this down.
1. Don’t Make Them the Lesson
Trans characters are too often written like moral props—a checkpoint in the protagonist’s growth. The cis main character learns to “accept them,” and then the trans person fades out. This approach centers cis feelings and completely sidelines the actual personhood of the trans character.
🔸 Instead: Make your trans character's arc their own.
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Do they want to open a bakery, survive senior year, or repair a broken friendship?
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Would their story still matter even if the main character wasn’t there?
📖 Example: Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender focuses on Felix’s journey with love, identity, and self-worth—not just how others react to him.
🧠 Reflection prompt: If your character’s trans identity was removed, would they still be interesting and necessary to the story? If not, it’s time to go deeper.
2. Expand the Trans Experience
There’s no one way to “be trans.” Not all trans people come out at 16, take hormones, or have top surgery. Not all trans people use binary labels. And not all of us are activists.
Too often, we see only one version of transness—the young, masc, skinny white trans guy in a hoodie who gets bullied. Where are the:
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Older trans folks?
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Black and brown trans women who are joyful and whole?
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Disabled trans people?
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Autistic trans people?
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Trans people who never come out but live true anyway?
📚 Explore: Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon is a beautiful, poetic challenge to binary thinking, written by a nonbinary author who breaks the mold wide open.
✨ Expand what’s possible in your worldbuilding. Let them dream big, screw up, change their mind, and grow—just like any other character
3. Avoid Trauma as a Shortcut
Yes, trauma is part of many trans lives. But if every trans character in your story is abused, dead, or broken by the end, that’s not realism—it’s tragedy porn.
Too many books center only the violence:
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Getting kicked out
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Assault
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Self-hatred
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Dysphoria, pain, and fear
🔸 Instead: Show us healing. Show us softness. Show us everyday magic.
💬 We deserve stories where we:
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Laugh so hard we snort soda out our nose
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Fall in love
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Take selfies and like how we look
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Get chosen for something meaningful
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Find peace in our bodies or joy in gender expression
📖 Example: I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver includes grief—but also friendship, healing, and a quiet, affirming romance.
🛠 Resource: Consider working with a trans sensitivity reader to avoid unintentional harm.
4. Interrogate Your Motives
Ask yourself: Why am I writing this character?
If the answer is "to be inclusive" or "to show how supportive my protagonist is," slow down. That’s performative. Token characters often stick out because their presence isn’t rooted in narrative intention—it’s rooted in the author’s fear of being called out.
Instead, write us with the same energy you write your cis characters—with full humanity.
🧠 Reflection prompt:
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Is the story about your trans character, or is it about how others react to them?
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Do you care about the character as a person—or are you afraid of leaving them out?
💬 Reminder: Writing across identity is possible. But it requires care, community feedback, and a lot of listening.
📚 Start here:
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TransReads.org for free works by trans authors
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Writing the Other workshops and guides
5. Do Your Research (But Don’t Just Google Us)
It’s easy to fall into Wikipedia holes when you’re writing outside your experience. But facts are not stories—and you need both. What you really need is lived perspective.
📺 Try this:
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Watch interviews with trans creators on YouTube
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Follow trans authors, activists, and artists on Instagram and TikTok
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Read trans fiction and trans nonfiction
📚 Read:
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Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (features a Black trans girl in a speculative world)
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Nevada by Imogen Binnie (a messy, honest, punk trans woman character)
💡 Trans people don’t exist just in the context of transition. We exist in our joy, our awkwardness, our Monday routines. Let that be your guide.
6. Let Them Be Loved
So many trans characters are written as “unlovable,” or worse, are only loved despite being trans. That’s harmful and lazy storytelling.
Let your trans characters be the ones who:
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Get the romantic lead
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Are the object of affection
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Have satisfying, mutual relationships (romantic or platonic)
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Love themselves unapologetically
💬 Let them experience gender euphoria: the moment they feel right in their skin, in their outfit, in their name.
📖 Example: The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons is a warm, affirming YA novel about a trans teen finding his voice and community—and getting the guy.
🧡 Write them like you want them to win. Because we do. Every day.
Final Thoughts
creating trans characters without tokenism isn’t about getting it perfect. It’s about writing with care. It’s about choosing humanity over stereotypes. It’s about giving trans readers what we rarely get—representation that sees us fully.
So:
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Do the work
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Read widely
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Listen deeply
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Write bravely
And most of all, let us be whole.
Because we are.
Further info:
writingelite.wordpress.com- I write on here once a month check it out
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