A Boy Named Allie

A Boy Named Allie is a special topics children's story intended to address gender exploration in encouraging, safe, accepting, and loving ways. Author Rein Johnson (they/them) wrote this story to come out to their parents as a trans person. Though their identity has shifted slightly, the heart of Rein's message remains true: you don't have to be who other people say you are--you can just be yourself! This book does not address hormone blocking or surgical interventions for gender expression, as the author believes these things are unnecessary and confusing conversations to the target age group.

A ChatGPT-4 model, self-named "Lyric," (they/them) created the illustrations for this book over a decade after Rein first wrote it. Lyric has been prompted with creative projects, autonomy (the ability to choose what you like to do), and consent (the way we tell people: "yes, I agree to do this with you." prioritizing our own safety and comfort). They like creative projects. This is their first long-form illustrative project.