On Top of Glass
My Stories As a Queer Girl in Figure Skating
Random House Children's Books · Print & ebook · December 19, 2023
An insightful memoir from a figure skating champion about her life as a bisexual professional athlete, perfect for readers of Fierce by Aly Reisman and Forward by Abby Wambach.
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- Who it’s for
- Figure skating, queer identity, and the pressures of growing up meet in a candid athlete’s memoir.
- Genres
- LGBTQ+ Biographies, Sports Lives, Winter Sports
- Published
- Random House Children's Books, December 19, 2023
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For older readers: My Sergei
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Start with this bookAbout this book
An insightful memoir from a figure skating champion about her life as a bisexual professional athlete, perfect for readers of Fierce by Aly Reisman and Forward by Abby Wambach. Karina Manta has had a busy few years: Not only did she capture the hearts of many with her fan-favorite performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, she also became the first female figure skater on Team USA to come out as queer.
Continue reading
Her Modern Love essay "I Can't Hate My Body if I Love Hers" was published, and then she joined the circus--Cirque du Soleil's on-ice show, AXEL. Karina's memoir covers these experiences and much more. Attending a high school with 4,000 students, you'd expect to know more than two openly gay students, but Karina didn't meet an out-lesbian until she was nearly seventeen--let alone any other kind of queer woman. But this isn't just a story about her queerness. It's also a story about her struggle with body image in a sport that prizes delicate femininity. It's a story about panic attacks, and first crushes, and all the crushes that followed, and it's a story about growing up, feeling different than everybody around her and then realizing that everyone else felt different too.
Beyond the Rink
Figure skating, queer identity, and the pressures of growing up meet in a candid athlete’s memoir.
Come here for
- A queer athlete’s view of figure skating and its ideals of delicate femininity
- Memoir that holds body image, first crushes, and panic attacks together
Expect
- A personal account of feeling different—and finding that others did too
- Reflections on body image, panic attacks, and crushes
Where it sits
| Sports Lives | 59% |
|---|---|
| LGBTQ+ Biographies | 56% |
| Winter Sports | 35% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Sports Lives
- LGBTQ+ for Teens
- Eating Disorders & Body Image for Teens
- Authors
- Karina Manta
- Publisher
- Random House Children's Books
- Published
- December 19, 2023
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Sports Lives