"These days, it is understood that sometimes boys will be girls; in Alfred Brevard Crenshaw's case, he wanted to be a woman-and what a woman!… Brevard’s story adds an entertaining curve to the growing body of literature —academic, scientific, theoretical and literary—on transgendered experience, without the self-pity or sentimentality found in many such memoirs…Written in a gossipy style reminiscent of 1950’s movie-star autobiographies (which at heart, it is.)”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
 
"Ms. Brevard scampers to center stage, spiked heels clickity-clacking right out of Stealth. She bravely and comically spills her life’s secrets like the contents of her purse: lipstick, estrogen pills, bunny ears, and Dean Martin’s phone number…”
— LOREN CAMERON, PHOTOGRAPHER, BODY ALCHEMY: TRANSSEXUAL PORTRAITS
 
“This is the testament of a remarkably candid and courageous woman. Her wit and insight make it easy to read, without shirking the questions that her experience raises about what it truly means to be a woman. I couldn’t put it down.”
—ELAINE CLARK, AUTHOR OF THE FALCONER
 
"In her autobiography, she relates the story of her remarkable life in sometimes funny, sometimes painful detail, from her gender-reassignment surgery and its aftermath to her stereotypically feminine employment (she was a Playboy Bunny for a time) and her three unhappy marriages."
--LIBRARY JOURNAL
 
"Brevard's description of her early life first echoes, then amplifies, those of other transsexuals… With that kind of gumption to buoy her, it's no wonder Brevard managed to become one of San Francisco's leading drag performers before her final surgery…"
--THE ADVOCATE, "Country Girl," by Etelka Lehoczky
 
"Her tone artfully balances camp and seriousness. Her memorable scenes, including some so powerful (like the self-castration episode) you have to put the book down for a breather, yet are driven to read on- the mark of a master storyteller and entertainer… Aleshia Brevard's journey is a brilliant, gutsy, and insightful look at a life simultaneously marginalized and in the spotlight."
--LAMBDA BOOK REPORT
 
"With a courageous, thoughtful, and often laugh-out-loud dish, Brevard shares her experiences as a Playboy Bunny, wife, actress and most importantly-woman."
--GENRE, "By the book", reviews by Leon Freeman
 
"Some vaginas are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust into them. So goes the wisdom of Miss Aleshia Brevard (n'ee Alfred Brevard Crenshaw) in her memoir of life before and after her 1962 gender-re-assignment surgery."
--OUT MAGAZINE
 
"I recently drove down to Santa Cruz… and got knee-walking drunk with one of the most fascinating and engaging women I have ever met…She has indeed finally become "The Woman She Was Not Born To Be." She eloquently sums up her transformation: " The dreams, the hormones, the surgery were all a desperate attempt at an acceptable life. The journey is a serious one. We joke. We sometimes cavort outlandishly. Each transsexual follows his or her own path, but finally, we all try to desensitize the pain. Ultimately, ours is a journey born of anguish. We make that journey in order to live who we are… without having to hide from anyone."
--QSF MAGAZINE, "A Matter of Identity", by Philip Mayard
 
"Throughout, Brevard gives unexpected depth to the diva dish by lacing it with serious discourse about the restraining roles society makes us play and an intelligent grasp of queer, transsexual, and feminist history. Your jaw drops when you read the sexy, outrageous details of Brevard's life on the edge, made all the more gripping when she puts her story in its larger context…While Brevard dishes up Rabelaisian tales like a raucously wise aunt, she's also willing to dig beneath the veneer of trannie mirth to get to harsher truths. She uncovers a world that stigmatizes femmes and gay community that's deeply ashamed of drag; a women's movement that generally leaves trannies behind and a transsexual community so anxious to blend in that it strives to erase all evidence of its maleness."
--VILLAGE VOICE, "Trans Mission" by Michael Musto
 
"Brevard recalls her line in "The Woman I Was Not Born To Be: A Transsexual Journey." The autobiography contains a sampling of heartache, erotica, raw sex, camp and nostalgia and a heavy dose of high drama…Brevard quips that like her acting work, her "particular yarn reads like a B-grade movie script." It does, at times. But "The Woman I Was Not Born to Be" is also a poignant, heart-felt memoir."
--CHICAGO FREE PRESS "Sentimental Journey" by Lisa Neff
 
"New Book Details the Courage, Humor and Pathos of a Transsexual Journey," by Ken Gies "(Reporter's Note: In a recent phone conversation with Ms. Aleshia Brevard, author of "The Woman I Was Not Born to Be- A Transsexual Journey," I was privileged to meet one of the most fascinating and engaging women of this or any other generation. In the space of one short conversation, I could feel the courageous spirit and happy soul of this brave woman."
--LIBERTY PRESS
 
" To her high school art students in laid-back Santa Cruz, Calif., Aleshia Brevard is a bubbly, fun-loving, yet unspectacular woman. However, all that may change now that Brevard's page-turner memoir, "The Woman I Was Not Born To Be: A Transsexual Journey" (Temple University Press) has been published."
--"MORE THAN A WOMAN " by Lawrence Ferber. FRONTIERS
 
"…and I am happy to say that her tale is one of the success stories. It is one of the most amazing memoirs - transsexual or otherwise-I've ever read… This life story, which I've summarized with the barest-bone details, is told with incredible wit and grace and feeling… I absolutely adored this book…"
--NEW YORK PRESS, "Breasts and Transhistories" by Jonathan Ames
 
" This is a fresh, frank, page-turning memoir that achieves a good balance of light, dishy anecdotes (Aleshia being cruised by Andy Griffith) and unforgettably chilling episodes (Buddy performing his own castration)."
--LESBIAN NOTIONS, Q SYNDICATE, by Paula Mertinac
 
"Not your average memoir… If someday there's a glut of transsexual memoirs on the market, Brevard's will still stand out. Not only is she a gender pioneer, but her life as a woman, including her career as a television and B-movie actress-is itself a compelling read."
--PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY
  
"They don't make transsexuals like they used to...Brevard tells the story of her fabulous life, including her childhood as a feminine boy, her pre-surgery years as a 20-year-old drag queen at San Francisco's world-famous nightclub Finocchio's, and her much-married (three times) adulthood. And of course, she tells the story of her $2,500 operation... Brevard's life is a great story, a spellbinding documentary waiting to happen. Filmmakers, send us a message and we'll hook you up."
--TIME.com: THE SAMPLER-- Galley Girl, Transgender Splendor, by Andrea Sachs
 
“Aleshia Brevard’s autobiography sheds important new light on the early history of transsexuality, but is perhaps most significant for the glimpse it offers of the author’s warm, wise, and ever-evolving personality. By placing the uniquely transsexual aspects of her story in the context of a lifelong determination to find contentment and self-acceptance, Brevard relates an intensely personal quest to more broadly shared human aspirations. This is a book with a heart, one that should be read by anyone interested in 20th-century gender studies.”
-- Susan Stryker, Executive Director, GLBT HISTORICAL SOCITY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA