Meredith Russo


Meredith Russo is an American young adult author from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Personal life

Russo is a transgender woman who transitioned in late 2013. Her debut young adult novel If I Was Your Girl is the first widely distributed young adult book about transgender teens written by a transgender woman. It was inspired by Russo's life. She wanted to write a book about a transgender character with a happy ending. In addition to her literary efforts, she campaigns heavily for HIV awareness and de-stigmatization.

Career

Russo's debut young adult novel, If I Was Your Girl, published in 2016 by Flatiron Books. If I Was Your Girl is about a transgender girl going to a new school and falling in love with a boy. If I Was Your Girl won the Stonewall Book Award for the Young Adult category in 2017 and the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children's Literature in 2017. It also received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist.
Her next young adult novel, Birthday, was published by Flatiron Books in 2019 and is a follow-up to If I Was Your Girl, following two teenagers whose lives intersect starting from their 13th birthdays.
Russo also contributed several short stories and essays to anthologies published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Vintage, and Algonquin.
The different characters of her stories are based on people she met during her life or from her own personal experience.
In an interview, she said that she has been inspired by a lot of comics, manga, and fiction.

Novels

Young adult

If I Was Your Girl
  • ''Birthday''

Short stories and essays

Awards

Won

2017

Nominations

2017