I’m honored that clinical psychologist Samantha Smithstein recently interviewed me for her blogs on Psychology Today and the San Francisco Examiner. We discussed my advocacy work for gender-nonconforming kids, what it means to be a pink boy, and school bullying prevention.

Responding to Dr. Smithstein’s questions was a good opportunity for me to articulate something I’ve long felt: that writing and speaking about raising a gender-nonconforming child is a form of social activism. I never imagined that the advocacy work I’d long participated in in other forms would someday look like this—but it turns out that we don’t always get to choose the shape our work takes.

And that’s okay. Because not only is this the most important thing I can think of to do with the energy that I have for social justice—it is, I hope, making my son’s and other children’s lives better—but it’s personally gratifying and often even fun.

So thank you for being my readers, for commenting on what I write, for telling your awesome and inspiring and heartbreaking stories, and for being your own activist selves in your own communities in so very many ways.