In 1997, Grace founded the band Against Me! Approached by NOFX to put out an EP, Grace declined the offer and asked Fat Wreck Chords instead to release their album Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy. After being arrested as a teenager, she began consuming anarchist punk media.

At a church youth group, she began the Black Shadows and performed at church talent shows, but was asked to stop after a performance of Nirvana's ' Heart-Shaped Box'. She was a military brat who lived in various places across America, as well as in Italy. Her first memories were of dressing in her mother's clothing. Quoting extracts from her journals, Grace describes her childhood. Though depicting the 'whirlwind' of public transition, Grace felt pressure to feature a happy ending to counterbalance the prevailing narratives about transgender people. Grace was surprised the publishers approved the title, and winces when hearing it said aloud, but chose it because of the book's themes of 'shame, internalised transphobia and self-loathing'. The title Tranny refers to her reclamation of hurtful insults and slurs formerly used against her but now repurposed for her defense. The book was known under a working title of Kill Me Loudly or Killing Me Loudly in 2015, when Grace was working with a different publisher.

The book is based on Grace's journals, which she kept since third grade. Grace is a singer-songwriter for the punk band Against Me! she came out as transgender in 2012. Informed by extensive journal records, it covers Grace's childhood and early involvement in anarcho-punk, and her role as frontperson of Against Me! from the band's founding to her publicly coming out as a transgender woman in 2012. Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout is an autobiography by Laura Jane Grace, co-written with Noisey editor Dan Ozzi and published by Hachette Books on November 15, 2016.

Tranny by Laura Jane Grace