{"id":13690,"date":"2016-08-23T11:10:54","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T18:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=films&#038;p=13690"},"modified":"2025-10-14T15:40:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T22:40:03","slug":"real-boy","status":"publish","type":"films","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/real-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Boy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A moving and intimate story of a family in transition, <\/span><b><i>Real Boy<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> follows the journey of trans teen Bennett as he navigates adolescence, sobriety, and the physical and emotional ramifications of his changing gender identity. Through the process, his mother Suzy makes her own transformation \u2014 travelling a difficult road toward accepting that the daughter she raised as Rachael is now her son Bennett.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Filmed over the course of four years, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Real Boy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a love story about a mother and son who rediscover connection with each other and find support from their communities, reminding us that families are not only given, but chosen. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Through observational storytelling that is alternately heartbreaking and humorous, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Real Boy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> offers a clear-eyed look at a family tested by a change they never imagined, the complexity of addiction, the healing power of music, and the unbreakable bond between mother and child.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A moving and intimate story of a family in transition, Real Boy follows the journey of trans teen Bennett as he navigates adolescence, sobriety, and the physical and emotional ramifications of his changing gender identity. Through the process, his mother Suzy makes her own transformation \u2014 travelling a difficult road toward accepting that the daughter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":13726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"topic":[1288],"class_list":["post-13690","films","type-films","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-lgbtq"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Real Boy | Trans Teen and His Mom&#039;s Journey to Acceptance | Independent Lens | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Real Boy: A musically talented trans teen navigates adolescence, sobriety, and the ramifications of his changing gender identity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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