She Looks Just Like You : A Memoir of (Nonbiological Lesbian) Motherhood

by Miller, Amie Klempnauer

• ISBN13: 9780807004692
• ISBN10: 0807004693
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-05-01
• Publisher: Beacon Press

Summary

Part love story, part comedy, part quest: this is the first memoir by a nonbiological lesbian mom. After ten years of talking about children, two years of trying unsuccessfully to conceive, and one shot of donor sperm to her partner, Amie Miller was about to become a mother. Or something like that.As a midwestern, station wagon-driving, stay-at-home mom-and as a nonbiological lesbian mother-Miller's experience both defines and defies the norm. Like new parents everywhere, she wrestled with the anxieties that accompany parenthood, fantasized about sleep, and watched as the presence of a baby transformed her eighteen-year relationship with her partner. As her partner became the mom-to-be, Miller searched for a role that would fit her own experience, somewhere in the unexplored zone between mother and father, gay and straight. She stood before a judge to adopt her own daughter and wondered how to respond when strangers gushed, "I bet Daddy's proud."Given the current "gayby" boom, Miller's candid and often humorous memoir is a much-needed cultural roadmap of what it means to be a parent when the usual categories no longer fit.

Author Biography

Amie Klempnauer Miller is a frequent speaker about gay and lesbian families, and her writing has appeared on Salon, in Brain, Child and Greater Good magazines, and elsewhere. Miller works as a development consultant to the public media industry and lives with her partner and daughter in St. Paul, Minnesota.