It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
She Wants It

She Wants It

Desire, Power, and Toppling the Patriarchy

Summary

A funny and brutally honest book about what it means to be a woman and what it takes to be a creator, She Wants It is deeply personal but always universal in its unapologetic recounting of a life lived and raw talent shared. Good. Detailed. Honest. Needed’ - Amy Poehler

One morning, half-awake in a shame spiral about what a shitty mother you are because you’re letting your kid watch so much TV, the phone rings.

‘Jilly? Are you sitting down?’

Are you sitting down? means something fucked up is coming…

When Jill Soloway’s father, whom they had always understood to be male, came out as transgender, everything shifted. For one, the moment became the inspiration to push through the male-dominated landscape of Hollywood and create the award-winning TV series Transparent. Exploring identity, love, sexuality, and the blurring of boundaries, the show gave birth to a new cultural consciousness. But also, by eventually coming out as queer and non-binary, the lines on Jill’s own gender map began to be erased.

This is the story of that journey.

She Wants It charts Jill's intense and revelatory experience, growing from straight, divorced, mother of two – to non-binary genderqueer director, show creator, and activist. Written with wild candour and razor-edged humour, it examines who we are, how we make art – and ultimately, who we can become.

Reviews

  • Jill Soloway is so utterly magnificent. I devoured these two hundred pages like they were a delicious papusa bought from the Silver Lake farmers' market
    Dolly Alderton

About the author

Jill Soloway

Jill Soloway is the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning creator of Transparent. Previously a writer and executive producer for Six Feet Under, How to Make It in America, and United States of Tara, Jill’s first feature film, Afternoon Delight, won the 2013 Directing Award at Sundance. They also co-created and directed the Amazon series I Love Dick. Jill lives in Los Angeles.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more