The first thing you’re going to want to know about me is: Am I a boy, or am I a girl?
-- Riley as Narrator (Chapter 1)

Importance: Riley introduces the major challenge in their life in this first quote from the novel. This quote is directed toward the people who might read a blog that Riley has been advised by their therapist to start for therapeutic reasons. This statement lets the reader know that Riley acknowledges that others are troubled by them because they cannot immediately discern if Riley is a boy or a girl. This questions remains unanswered through the course of the novel. The author is careful not to reference Riley’s anatomical gender.

If he asks why, what am I going to say? That I’m my father’s political pawn? Or that I was trying to escape from a place where I was harassed and bullied on a daily basis? Charming...
-- Riley as Narrator (Chapter 2)