Gender Magic

Live Shamelessly, Reclaim Your Joy, & Step into Your Most Authentic Self

By: Rae McDaniel MED LCPC CST

Narrated by: Rae McDaniel MED LCPC CST

A first-of-its-kind practical guide to achieving gender freedom with joy, curiosity, and pleasure for transgender and non-binary individuals, gender explorers, and those who love them—perfect for listeners of The Body is Not an Apology and Pleasure Activism.

Taking everything they know from more than a decade of working with the queer and trans community, their personal journey of gender exploration, and clinical best practices, licensed therapist, coach, and speaker Rae McDaniel created the Gender Freedom Model. A uniquely supportive narrative for gender exploration and transition grounded in queer joy, their nine-pillar model has helped thousands of transgender and nonbinary individuals explore gender through play, pleasure, and freedom. And now, it can help you too.

Whether you're transgender, non-binary, cisgender, or still exploring, this compassionate and practical guide will help you experience your gender in new, expansive ways by teaching:

• How to move from anxiety, self-doubt, and fear to a confident, proactive state of mind.
• How to navigate discomfort and celebrate your inherent worth as you develop genuine self-love.
• How to design relationships, community, and a sex life that lights you up.
• Practical tools to align your gender identity and expression with your most authentic self through play, pleasure, and possibility.

Brimming with warmth, celebration, and practical advice Gender Magic is essential listening for anyone who yearns to step into their fullest self and imagine a life beyond gender binaries. Because you—yes YOU—are magic.

"Rae McDaniel is a leader in their generation, matching compassion with clear-sighted vision for a sex-positive future.” – Emily Nagoski, Ph.D, author of Come As You Are and Burnout

©2022 Rae McDaniel (P)2022 Balance

Critic reviews

"Rae McDaniel is a leader in their generation, matching compassion with clear-sighted vision for a sex-positive future."—Emily Nagoski, Ph.D, author of Come As You Are and Burnout

"Gender Magic reroutes the hero's journey by insisting that all bodies are sites of profound creativity and pleasure, ever generating innovative meanings. A cutting-edge triumph that will likely save lives on its way to illuminating new stories to live by."—Lidia Yuknavich, critically acclaimed author of The Chronology of Water

"Gender Magic is a fresh and audacious guide to gender freedom, helping readers find the courage and momentum they need to confidently be themselves in the world. This book is essential reading for those exploring gender and those who love them."—Andrea Owen, author of How to Stop Feeling like Sh*t, global keynote speaker, and Professional Certified Life Coach

MUST LISTEN! The audacity to live joyFULLY

Inspiring! Smart! Fun and Funny! A thoughtful and excellently balanced collection of life lessons, science, metafor, encouragement, wisdom, poetry, politics, and passion.

Well read, with authenticity and humor, by the author. Its so clear that Rae doesnt just talk the talk, they walk the walk. Sometimes with grace and sometimes falling on their face - which is SO humanizing and encouraging. If they can do it, why cant I?

Full of great exercise to help ANYONE who wants to live with more play and pleasure in their lives.

As a non trans person I found this book a great read. Helpful and incitful on how to be a better and effective advocate for the trans community. How to contribute to the revolution I want to see in mental health, LGBTQIA+ issues, social justice and human rights. AND about 95% of this content resonated with me personally - even though Im not trans.

I think it's a treasure, a gem, its full of so many words I wish someone told me so long ago. This book has the capacity to change and save lives.

I think this book is F@#$in MAGIC!

A powerful work to help guide the framing of transition for those who are still focusing on the negative

Rae is a phenomenal author and orator who brings the book to life in their reading of it. They are passionate, reassuring, insightful, and funny. I found myself actually laughing while listening to the book. And at other times, I had to go to my wife, play a section for her, and say "They're right, but I feel way too 'seen' right now!"

I have known I am transgender for almost two years now and am coming up on my one year anniversary of starting to medically transition. This book definitely encapsulates so many of the things I had discovered for myself in the past two years and also challenged me with new insights that I had to pause the book and mull over for a day or two.

if you are a transgender person looking for a book that will help you to contextualize transition within your own life, help you understand what you want out of the process, help you understand thee communal resources available to you and tap into some inner reserves of strength you've been neglecting a bit, then this book is an excellent choice.

if you're a cis person (or a gender questioning person) who wants to better understand aspects of the trans experience and what transition entails, it's benefits, it's costs, and how to better support the trans people in your life, this is also a great book for you.

Give this book a chance. It will likely leave you with a plethora of answers, even more questions, and a roadmap for how to name and then achoeve your own goals for gender transition in all its dimensions.

And remember, you are magic!

ps: As part of voice training, I did voice matching to this book as a way to try out different intonations and cadences. Their voice is a bit "gender goals" for me.

Excellent read for anyone

This was a very good listen! The author was funny and relatable. Lots of affirmations about how everyone's journey through life is unique and having the courage to be your best self.

Thank You So, So, Sososo Much for this Gift

This book helped us to be way more assertive and find the joy again, in the process of Our transition.
Dealing with the gate keeping bureaucracy of a federal healthcare system has us feeling out of control of our process.
It began feeling like a performative endeavor we had to rush what we should have been savoring! Thank you Rae!!!
BTW, completely LOVE your voice…and they way you read this to us, makes it a pleasure, even for a neurodivergent folx like We.
This book is giving us so much more courage from all the tools and wee ‘silver bullets’ it supplied. It’s really helped us, especially the exercises, which are great!
The gentle, Wise and generous offering to the World this book bestows, are not just for the Queer community.
This book is a gift for anyone and everyone regardless of gender or sexuality.
Please write more books :)

👍👍

No other book of its kind. Good narration. Solid content. Life changing. This book is all the things. Just read it.

A key reading in any gender research and exploration

Very well written and read. Feels like learning from a friend who GETS it because they've been through it and found their way to thriving. Would recommend for anyone exploring or transitioning their gender, or those who love someone who is.

great book

been tearing through LGBT and trans books and this one here I believe is in the top 1%. it inspired myle to love my journey, not take the little stuff too seriously and enjoy the magic. LOVE this book I bought hard copies for my friends and spouse. highly highly recommend.

Eh not for me

Has some good advice but didn't really help me reclaim my joy, lessen shame, or change in anyway. I realize that comes from within but just didn't resonate with the overall queerness of the book. Often felt like I was being talked to like I was a child, authors life continuously referenced, over use of metaphors, perhaps more useful for nb/ftm than mtf's. Glad some enjoy it and found it useful.