Sarah & Ian Hoffman

Remember the old commercial when the chocolate and the peanut butter collide, and accidentally invent the peanut butter cup? Well, long ago, Sarah was writing for adults—for newspapers, magazines, and radio—about raising their gender-nonconforming son, Sam. At the same time, Ian—an architect by day—was writing and illustrating picture books for kids. One day, it dawned on them to work together, and write picture books about gender. That’s how the Jacob series was born. Just like a peanut butter cup.

"We set out to write a story about a boy who wants to wear a dress to school. There is a lot of leeway in our world for girls to express themselves all along the gender spectrum, from sparkly dresses to jeans and baseball caps. Our hope is for a world where boys are just as free to be who they are, and to express themselves however they’d like. So we hope, when kids read Jacob’s New Dress, that…