lexie
Bean
What's up?!
EVENTS
-Berlinale! This February! And several more options the following days.Come thru for the world premiere of my feature documentary, What Will I Become?
-More festivals and community programming to come. Follow @whatwillibecome_doc on Instagram to be in the most immediate loop.
RECENTLY PUBLISHED, PREMIERED, & SCREENED
-First teaser trailerof What Will I Become? available now.
-Interview with The Headlight Review on book bans.
-I have a cameo in Sam Feder's acclaimed documentaryHeightened Scrutiny, which had a 2025 Sundance and theatrical premiere.
PROJECT ANNOUCEMENTS
-Harper Steele (SNL, WIll and Harper) was announced in The Hollywood Reporter as a new Executive Producer of What Will I Become?
-Early development for my next documentary, relating to childhood sexual abuse survivorship, you'll have to contact me about that.
-Castella Bean Ranch Pilot Project! Is a collaboration with my pal, Angela, where we explore transforming her ranchito into an animal sanctuary with rehabilitation for DV/SA survivors. We recently had our first pilot programming as we explore! More to come.
-My new anthology, Meet Me There, Another Time, is now finding a new publishing home. It is focused on queer and trans people writing to places they've had to leave behind. More soon.
-I recontinuedPatreon,where you can support me and my work directly!
i'm passionate about creating honest + complex trans narratives through writing, performance, & film.
My work spans from curating the Lambda Literary finalist anthology Written on the Body, to building 150+ events for survivor advocacy and storytelling around the world, to roller skating in indie music videos as a formerly nationally-ranked athlete.
My award-winning debut novel, The Ship We Built, made history as the first middle grade novel centering a trans boy written by one at a major U.S. publisher. It is currently in development as an animated stop-motion feature film alongside dream collaborators behind Oscar and BAFTA nominated projects.
My debut co-directed feature documentary, What Will I Become?, has its world premiere at Berlinale this February and US national public television broadcast in late 2026 or early 2027. The film explores why over half of transgender boys attempt suicide. It is supported by ITVS, Sundance Institute, Firelight Media, Film Independent and has Harper Steele (SNL, Will & Harper) as Executive Producer. The impact campaign will be built-out in partnership with GLSEN, Sound Mind Live, Trans Lifeline, and more.
Community work has always been in the underbelly of it all. With over 15 years of experience centering fellow survivors of domestic and sexual violence — especially queer and transgender childhood sexual abuse — I have worked for hotlines, offered workshops at major universities and trainings for professional networks, hosted restorative justice circling, organized with the founders of The Ali Forney Center and The Trevor Project, and more. My writing on the subject has been elevated in several recent books, as well as Teen Vogue, TransLash, Library of Congress, Detroit Institute of the Arts, and more. I have worked on short films intended a resources and conversation-starters for this taboo subject, including A Scavenger Hunt for People Loneliest in Their Own Homes, which won Best Experimental Short at the Indie Shorts Awards Cannes, and Full, which screened at the world's largest gathering of childhood sexual abuse survivors across all contexts. My exploration of survivorship and trans identity has also taken the form of performance work, having led two international tours and partnership with Gibney Dance, GreenSpace, etc. I will further explore these themes in my next documentary feature and within my next topical anthology.
This work, other writing projects in development, and survival would not be possible without loved ones, thoughtful mail, and institutional support from the Jerome Hill Foundation, Tin House Workshop, Paragraph NY, Wellstone Center in the Redwoods, and Sundress Academy for the Arts at Firefly Farms.
For more recent projects and updates, read the lil red box on this page!