Bean

What's up?!

EVENTS​


-Most recently: A 2025 Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month College tour with Oberlin College, Marquette University, Western Michigan University, Northern Arizona University, and California State University.​

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RECENTLY PUBLISHED, PREMIERED, & SCREENED


-Interview with The Headlight Review on book bans.


-​Placement in Film Independent's Non-Fiction Works-In-Progress Screening Series for What Will I Become? 


-​I have a cameo in Sam Feder's acclaimed documentaryHeightened Scrutiny, which had a 2025 Sundance and theatrical premiere


-Keep an eye on this section! What Will I Become? is en route to a 2026 festival circuit. 


PROJECT ANNOUCEMENTS​​​


-Castella Bean Ranch Pilot Project! Is a collaboration with my pal, Angela, where we explore combining an animal sanctuary with rehabilitation for DV/SA survivors. We have our first pilot programming this fall as we explore!


-My new anthology, Meet Me There, Another Time,is now in production at Jessica Kingsley Publishers. It is focused on queer and trans people writing to places they've had to leave behind. It is due for a summer 2026 release. ​​


-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.  


I’m also finishing my first feature documentary, What Will I Become?, co-directed with Logan Rozos, which explores why over half of transgender boys attempt suicide. It is supported by ITVS, Sundance Institute, and Film Independent and Executive Produced by Harper Steele (Will & Harper, SNL) and Patrick Stump (Fall Out Boy). The film will have a 2026 public television broadcast and festival premiere. 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, having previously organized with Black & Pink, founders of The Ali Forney Center and The Trevor Project, etc. 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. 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 alongside Queer Youth Assemble and within my next topical anthology, Meet Me There, Another Time, which will come out next year. 


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! 


IN THE MEANTIME, HERE ARE MORE FUN FACTS:


1.) I discovered I am double jointed in my arms from watching America's Next Top Model.


2.) My favorite way to play the piano is with my eyes closed. 


3.) I got toilet paper stuck to my roller skate at the fourth grade Halloween Party, and three years later I won the gold metal in my division at the USA Roller Sports National Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska. 


I'm very good at the game "Two Truths and a Lie." Lucky for you, I just gave you three truths. 


HERE'S ANOTHER TRUTH: I THINK YOU COULD BE FUN AND MEANINGFUL TO COLLABORATE WITH. PLEASE SAY HI TO ME.