Julia Serano is a true Renaissance woman: a writer, performer, activist, and biologist. She is best known for her book Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity (Seal Press), a collection of personal essays that reveal how misogyny frames popular assumptions about femininity, and shapes many of the myths and misconceptions people have about transgender women. Since its publication in 2007, Whipping Girl has garnered rave reviews and has been used as teaching materials in gender studies, queer/LGBTQ studies, psychology and human sexuality courses in colleges and graduate schools across North America. Julia's second full-length book, Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, published by Seal Press, will be available in October, 2013. Julia's other writings have appeared in numerous anthologies (including Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape, Transfeminist Perspectives: in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies, Best Sex Writing 2013, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, and Word Warriors: 30 Leaders in the Women's Spoken Word Movement), and in feminist, queer, and pop culture magazines and websites (such as Bitch, AlterNet.org, Out, Ms. Magazine blog, Feministing.com, and make/shift). Her articles and essays tackle a broad range of topics, including feminism, queer/LGBTQIA+, and trans activism, sexism, sexualization, media stereotypes, psychiatric depictions of gender and sexual minorities, the "nature versus nurture" debate, bisexuality, femininity and femme politics.In addition to her writing and activism, Julia has a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University, and spent 17 years as a researcher at UC Berkeley in the fields of genetics, and evolution and developmental biology ("evo devo"). Her understanding of biology, along with her life experiences as a trans woman, give her a unique perspective on gender and sexism that challenges many commonly held beliefs.