Mary Wears What She Wants by Keith Negley

• Plot Summary: a charming picture book inspired by the true story of Mary Edwards Walker, a trailblazing 19th-century doctor who was arrested many times for wearing pants. Once upon a time (but not that long ago), girls only wore dresses. And only boys wore pants. Until one day, a young girl named Mary had an idea: She would wear whatever she wanted. And she wanted to wear pants! This bold, original picture book encourages readers to think for themselves while gently challenging gender and societal norms.

• Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvsW4Fv0tEk

• This is a great book to pair with one of the boy-wears-dresses books because it points out that although we’ve normalized girls wearing pants now, it used to be just as taboo as boys wearing dresses is now. Hopefully, kids reading this book will side with Mary, that you should be able to wear whatever you want.