More Gender Noncomformity

My youth is a long way away, and I don't remember it entirely clearly. But I remember that I never wanted to be a housewife, a mother or anything that was allowed to women in those days: a secretary, a teacher or a nurse. I wanted to be a writer, a space cadet and someone who changed the world for the better. I didn't give into social pressure, because my mother and her sisters were backing me, and because I was so clueless -- so much in my own world -- that I didn't register social pressure. Yes, other kids were sometimes mean to me, but I didn't know why or what I could do about it. So I did nothing and kept being myself. I think I was probably an odd duck, but I managed to protect myself from the 1950s. I became a writer, but not a space cadet, though I write about space faring. I wanted to change the world in radical ways: to make it just and peaceful and kind. I didn't manage that. But I have written about societies that are juster and more peaceful and kinder than ours.