Hi, I’m @rosedommu — a writer, trans woman, and former baby-sitter (those Evanescence CDs weren’t going to pay for themselves!) who NEEDS to talk about episode four of The Baby-Sitters Club and why its depiction of a young trans girl made me cry happy tears

The Baby-Sitters Club is a smart, sweet, and self-aware update of the beloved book series about preteen BFFs who start a childcare service — literal girlbosses!

This generation’s BSC handle the same dramas as their original incarnations, with the circumstances updated for 2020.

The most timely and poignant modernization is the child being babysat in Episode 4, titled Mary Anne Saves the Day. The shy Mary Anne is asked for specifically by parents who are family friends. The club isn’t down with this favoritism and Mary Anne is ICED in the cafeteria.

It turns out that the child Mary Anne is sitting for is a young trans girl named Bailey, whose parents simply needed a sitter they could trust. Bailey is adorable, fabulous and already knows what’s tea.

Ready for an outfit change, Bailey explains that the closet is full of her “old clothes,” while her new clothes are much more sparkly — taste! Mary Anne understands immediately that Bailey knows who she is & has supportive parents who trust their daughter and want her to be happy

Mary Anne’s friend Dawn gives a thoughtful, educational, and compassionate explanation of trans identity — duh, she’s “from California.” This simple breakdown gives the show’s young viewers a powerful tool to shape their worldview. Maybe the children really are our future

When Bailey comes down with a fever, Mary Anne rushes her to the hospital, where two doctors misgender her. Mary Anne firmly corrects them.

Misgendering is traumatic. This is one of the baseline ways cisgender people can show up for the trans people in their life

What this episode ultimately gives me is hope. It illustrates what was articulated so perfectly in @Disclosure_Doc: You can’t be what you can’t see. Imagine the young trans children who are going to watch this & see a version of themselves who is actualized, supported, and HAPPY.

In the real world, trans people are in real danger: https://www.glaad.org/transgender/transfaq

That’s why it is so important that we listen to and trust trans kids while also building a kinder world for them to grow up in.

So, we have no choice but to stan The Baby-Sitters Club, our unproblematic queens and queer allies.

And more importantly: stan Bailey and all the very real children like her who know who they are. THAT is tea.