She is the author of nonfiction books on transgender teenagers, the U.S. foster system, and empathy, as well as a young adult novel and a short memoir.
Beam was a volunteer teacher at EAGLES Academy for two and a half years, a former public high school for LGBT students in Los Angeles.
[5] In 2011, Beam published I Am J, a young adult novel which was named a finalist for the 2012 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction.
Just as she did in 'Transparent,' her excellent book about transgender teenagers in Los Angeles, Beam writes about social outcasts without stereotyping them.
But Denizet-Lewis also notes Beam's reporting suggests this advocacy "can provide only so much hope in a system that no one — 'not the kids, not the foster or biological parents, not the social workers, the administrators, the politicians, the policy experts' — thinks is working.