iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 09/10/2026

playing a delightful game for toddlers 😎

A cartoon book with a white mustache sits on a stump as Yoshi looks on in Yoshi and the Mysterious Book.

Yoshi walking through a landscape that looks out of a storybook.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 04/10/2026

Lego Polaroid build and helper

Part of a Lego Polaroid build framed by an old-school Kodak editing program

A gray and white cat’s eyes peering out from a cardboard box

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 30/09/2026

developing a whole bit around this cheap calculator watch I just bought well really the bit is I just can’t stop asking people if they need me to calculate anything for them

A burgundy Casio watch with a calculator keypad on a white person’s wrist. The start of a forearm blueberry sprig tattoo is visible.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 29/09/2026

not just saying that because she hits on a MAJOR sports nomenclature pet peeve of mine in the first paragraph lol

This fall, Ryann Allison is finally a senior at Stephen F. Austin State University, a midsize public university in Nacogdoches, a town in rural East Texas, where the men’s and women’s Division I sports teams are known as the Lumberjacks and the Ladyjacks, respectively. The mascots are a nod to the school’s proximity to the state’s timber and forestry industries as well as to good old-fashioned gender roles. A driven and organized young woman who grew up in Texas, Allison usually looks forward to returning to campus and her intense schedule. But not this year. For the first time since she arrived on campus, she isn’t playing on the school’s beach volleyball team. In a way, she feels she’s lost an important part of her identity.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 17/09/2026

I’m simply far too gay and neurodivergent to Sit Normally, even while presenting oops (photo by @thefrankiedlc.news)

Me sitting on a bar stool in front of a floor to ceiling bookshelf. One leg is dangling somewhat normally and the other is at a strange angle on the leg of the stool. I am talking into a microphone and looking off camera.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 15/09/2026

Also lol: Renée Richards once played mixed doubles in WTT alongside NBA player John Lucas. If anything highlights the absurdity of tennis’s gender panic, it’s the very existence of mixed doubles

An article from the May 1978 World Team Tennis magazine issue called ”Rookie of the Year?” about Renée Richards.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 07/09/2026

How did we get here? Well ... FINDING RENÉE RICHARDS www.astoriabookshop.com/item/1sM1NJw...

Martina Navratilova Pushes Conspiracy Theory That WNBA Has A Secret Trans Player.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 03/09/2026

Gloria Steinem famously wrote about Renée Richards in Ms. Magazine in 1977, and not, uh, super favorably (I know her views on transgender rights evolved in the decades since) Sorry for incomplete alt text (Having a Time with it), but I have the full article scanned if anyone wants to see it

If the Shoe Doesn’t Fit, Change the Foot by Gloria Steinem

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 31/08/2026

Very, very neat to attend the U.S. Open yesterday as a fan, 49 years since Renée Richards’s first appearance there as a professional. She was 43 years old and lost in the first round to Virginia Wade, that year’s Wimbledon champ. Richards made it to the doubles final tho, alongside Bettyann Stuart

The court and crowd at Arthur Ashe stadium. A player stands on either side of the court.

A hand holding up a copy of Finding Renée Richards. The backdrop has spectators wandering on the ground below, the Unisphere, and a tennis court.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 28/08/2026

Happy birthday to a newly minted, tongue-out 12-year-old!

A gray and white tabby cat looks at the camera with her tongue poking out just a little bit.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 27/08/2026

A friend found FINDING RENÉE RICHARDS shelved face out at his hometown shop — I love seeing pics like this of the book in the wild

Two brown bookshelves of biographies, mostly with spines out, with Finding Renée Richards placed face out.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 25/08/2026

Had a great launch event last night with @astoriabookshop.bsky.social! Huge thanks to @girinathan.bsky.social and everyone who came out on a Monday. I’ll still be signing copies for the shop — just request a signature when you buy from them here: www.astoriabookshop.com/item/1sM1NJw...

Giri Nathan and I sit on a stage and talk into microphones with a copy of Finding Renée Richards on a table between us. A sign for the venue, QED, is in the background.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 23/08/2026

Ready for FINDING RENÉE RICHARDS launch events 😎

My hand wrapped around a tiny toy tennis ball. My nails, with extensions, are painted to look like tennis balls.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 20/08/2026

we are thrilled — thrilled! — to be celebrating book launch week with our new toy tennis balls

A copy of Finding Renée Richards upright on a window sill with three tennis ball cat toys in front of it. To the right is a gray and white tabby, looking unimpressed.

A gray and white tabby faces the camera with a toy tennis ball tucked under her chin.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 18/08/2026

just signed my weight in books at @astoriabookshop.bsky.social! Go get ’em! www.astoriabookshop.com/item/1sM1NJw...

A copy of Finding Renée Richards sits on a table. I’m holding it open to the title page, which bears my signature in black Sharpie.

A table of new nonfiction books at Astoria Bookshop. There is a stack of Finding Renée Richards copies among other books.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 18/08/2026

made the cat do a lil unhinged photoshoot

I am sitting at a desk in front of a window holding a copy of Finding Renée Richards. I have thrown my head back in possibly maniacal laughter.

I am seated, reaching behind me to scratch the chin of a gray and white tabby cat. Next to her on the windowsill is a copy of Finding Renée Richards.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 18/08/2026

launch day flowers from my agent 😍 (tiny cam not really doing their beauty justice)

A white vase filled with white and light purple flowers.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 17/08/2026

Hark! An excerpt from the FINDING RENÉE RICHARDS audiobook!

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 16/08/2026

smol camera attempted to capture Blues Traveler in Central Park last night lol

An extremely poorly lit photo of Blues Traveler playing Central Park SummerStage. You can see a bunch of yellow stage lights blowing out the frame, and not much else.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 09/08/2026

Signing my own name doesn’t always go too great

Sincerely, Julie written in blank ink on white paper. Julie is written in really poor, shaky cursive.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 08/08/2026

Nail polish photos are always a double whammy — they’re shaky AND you can see how shaky and messy my paint jobs themselves are

A blurry look at my nail painting abilities. The polish on my hand, which is wrapped around a bottle of nail polish remover, is sparkly and teal. You can also see how I’ve erroneously painted over parts of my skin.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 08/08/2026

All of my money for a non-shaky version of this shot of my friend’s foster kittens. That tongue!

Two very small gray kittens sit in a playpen cuddled against each other. One has his head cocked to the side, and his tongue is sticking out.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 08/08/2026

One of many shaky shots I took at the Bronx botanic garden this spring

A blurry yellow flower where the stem is weirdly more in focus than the petals. This was not intentional.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 07/08/2026

I am thrilled when any library stocks my books, and I’m *extra* thrilled when @qplnyc.bsky.social does — Queens is my longtime home, and it’s also where Renée grew up 🙂

The Unisphere in Queens, with trees in the background and a few people walking by.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 06/08/2026

A few FINDING RENÉE RICHARDS author copies as captured by smol camera

A box of hard copies of Finding Renée Richards. Parts of four books are in frame. It’s all blurry, because I have a tremor.

A stack of four copies of Finding Renée Richards as seen from their spines, which has her name in light blue and pink colors. The author’s name, Julie Kliegman, is also on the spine.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 06/08/2026

Kobo highlighting FINDING RENÉE RICHARDS among its August picks? You love to see it! www.kobo.com/us/en/p/book...

New in Biography & Memoir, thumbnails of six book covers, including Finding Renée Richards in the middle

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 06/08/2026

This isn’t quite the ”powerful” or ”crystal clear” statement news orgs want you to think lol

A screenshot of a group of headlines from Google News about Coco Gauff’s commentary on WTA sex testing, including ”Coco Gauff crystal clear …” and ”Coco Gauff addresses transgender athlete debate with powerful statement”

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 06/08/2026

I’m gonna be on a panel about mental health in sports next Tuesday evening — come hang! rebeccasdream.org/event/mental...

More Than the Game: Mental health in sports free webinar panel discussion. When an athlete suffers a physical injury, we know what to do. But when an athlete is struggling with their mental health, the path forward is often less clear.
Join us for a conversation about recognizing when an athlete may need support and creating a culture where seeking help is viewed as a sign of strength. Well explore how mental wellness affects performance, relationships, and overall well-being, and how athletes, coaches, parents, and teammates can recognize the warning signs, offer meaningful support, and create environments that value mental wellness as highly as physical health.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 03/08/2026

Good on @weareravenous.com for being so thoughtful about freelance commissions, and also … man, things are bleak www.weareravenous.com/ai-freelance...

On the precipice of soliciting freelance work, I asked some colleagues about what they were doing to protect their publications from getting got by AI, and the responses were depressing. Some reported spending more time poring over a writer’s or photographer’s clips, or requiring video interviews to make sure freelancers were actually real, which cuts into other work they could be doing. And multiple publications said they had just decided to close open freelance calls altogether, instead only accepting pitches from people they already knew, or from friends-of-friends who could be personally vouched for. It makes perfect sense when the other option is wading through AI-generated emails and potentially publishing a completely fabricated story from a person that doesn’t exist. But operating on a who-you-know basis recreates the environment of gatekeeping, privilege and closed ranks that so many of us in worker-owned media are trying to fight.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 01/08/2026

So, uh, a funny thing happened with the FINDING RENÉE RICHARDS jackets, and now the title is in grayscale. Let’s sell out this print run and then you’ll have a quirky first-edition keepsake after the correct jacket gets printed for future runs? Sound good? www.harpercollins.com/products/fin...

The cover of Finding Renée Richards: The Groundbreaking Story of Tennis’s Trans Pioneer, by Julie Kliegman. The text is all gray and white on top of a grayscale image of Richards on the court in the ‘70s.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 28/07/2026

I tried to take a video of cat stethoscope time and, uh, here’s the best frame

A selfie of me wearing a stethoscope applied to the chest of a gray and white tabby cat looking very alarmed at the camera.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 25/07/2026

book event on the horizon!!! (tickets here btw: www.astoriabookshop.com/events/54889...)

An Astoria Bookshop flyer advertising July and August events, including Finding Renée Richards on Monday, August 24.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 22/07/2026

Crucially, my book also connects everything to TODAY’S absolutely nightmarish landscape for trans athletes. Look no further than tennis itself: The USTA quietly banned trans girls and women late last year. And the WTA just now instituted a sex-testing policy for all competitors.

A stack of five paperback press copies of Finding Renée Richards by Julie Kliegman sit spine-out on a brown table.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 22/07/2026

It would be a year before Renée sued for her right to play in the 1977 U.S. Open women’s draw. She won that lawsuit, thanks in part to support from Billie Jean King. FINDING RENÉE RICHARDS tells that story and much more. (Paul J. Bereswill—Newsday/Getty Images)

Bespectacled Billie Jean King and Renée Richards playing doubles at the Lionel Cup as a ballgirl stands in the background.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 22/07/2026

In 1976, Renée had picked up and moved from New York to California to start a new life with her new name and gender identity and job. She knew continuing to play tennis was a risk — her lefty serve was eminently recognizable — but she loved the game. Why should she deprive herself? In her words:

A book page with the following text highlighted in pink: this taste of tournament play reminded me of how much I missed organized competition. Private play is fun, but it isn’t as spicy as as tournament when everyone is pumped up and you work your way through an orderly series of games to determine who is the best of a large group. I felt so comfortable as Renée that I thought once again; why shouldn’t I have everything I want? I was like Eve in the Garden of Eden but with a tennis ball instead of an apple.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 22/07/2026

If the ”masquerading” line sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same exact talking point anti-trans policymakers (and some journalists) use today to denigrate trans athletes and assert that they don’t belong in sports, that they’re stealing spots from cisgender girls and women.

A Polaroid of Renée Richards standing in front of an apartment building.

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Julie Kliegman @juliekliegman.com · 22/07/2026

Fifty years ago this month, Renée Richards was outed by … drumroll … the father of Tucker Carlson. Richard Carlson said on TV that Renée was a man masquerading as a woman to win an amateur tennis tournament in La Jolla. I mean, she DID win, as rumors swirled around her! But that’s not the point.

Renée Richards holding a tennis ball and racket.

A man named Richard Carlson standing in front of tennis courts, holding a corded microphone.

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