movie review growing up coy

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Growing up coy, common sense media reviewers.

Parents fight for trans child's rights in informative docu.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Fight for what you believe in even if it makes you

Jeremy and Kathryn Mathis are devoted parents who

It's suggested that if a trans girl were to us

"Penis" and "testicles" are me

"S--t," "crap," "penis,&q

Parents need to know that Growing Up Coy follows two parents as they fight for the right of their 6-year-old transgender daughter, Coy, to use the girls' bathroom at her Colorado public school. The parents are intelligent, articulate caretakers of five children whose lives become a media circus when they…

Positive Messages

Fight for what you believe in even if it makes you uncomfortable.

Positive Role Models

Jeremy and Kathryn Mathis are devoted parents who want to protect their children's rights. They are smart and articulate and brave enough to take on the state of Colorado and challenge a school that refuses to obey the state law that allows transgender children to use school bathrooms that match their gender identity. Critics attack the Mathis family for seeking media attention when, in fact, they were reluctant to go public until it was clear they needed to publicize the way the school was breaking Colorado law. As soon as they won their issue, they stopped speaking to the media. Coy may wish that she hadn't received so much media attention, but she'll always know that her parents fought as hard as they could to protect her rights and support her.

Violence & Scariness

It's suggested that if a trans girl were to use the boys' bathroom at school, as per the state's laws, boys might beat her up. Critics post tasteless content against transgender people and Coy's parents on social media.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

"Penis" and "testicles" are mentioned in the context of what genitals children are born with as compared with the gender some children identify themselves with. Detractors incorrectly suggest that the parents of a 6-year-old trans girl "turned" the child trans by dressing her in girls' clothes, supposedly before she was old enough to express gender preference. Some go so far as to call the parents' action child abuse. A small transgender girl asks her parents when they can go to the doctor so her penis can be cut off and she can be a girl.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"S--t," "crap," "penis," "testicles," and "d--k."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Growing Up Coy follows two parents as they fight for the right of their 6-year-old transgender daughter, Coy, to use the girls' bathroom at her Colorado public school. The parents are intelligent, articulate caretakers of five children whose lives become a media circus when they insist their kids' school adhere to Colorado law, which prohibits discrimination against trans children. Some brief glimpses of hate mail targeted against the parents and trans people are quoted and shown. Language includes "s--t" and "d--k." "Penis" and "testicles" are mentioned in the context of what genitals children are born with as compared with the gender some children identify themselves with. Some critics suggest that the trans child was "created" by the parents' irresponsibility and abnormal interest in the sexualization of children. However, under this documentary's scrutiny, the parents appear to be exceptionally kind, patient, and caring. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

GROWING UP COY is a revealing documentary showcasing two parents courageous enough to stand up for the rights of their transgender daughter, who was discriminated against by her school. At first the school allowed the child to use the girls' bathroom, as per requirements of Colorado law. But the school reversed its position, seemingly because other parents objected to the possibility that their little girls might see Coy's penis. The parents' effort to help protect the rights of one of their children consumes their time and emotional energy, already strained by caring for their four other kids, one of them severely disabled by cerebral palsy. Kathryn becomes critical of Jeremy for being away and taking less responsibility for dealing with the media. Jeremy moves out temporarily as they try to sort out their differences and save the marriage. Their 6-year-old son feels neglected because of the attention Coy's case receives. Even after they turn to the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, which files a successful civil rights complaint, the Mathises observe that Coy faces other, perhaps bigger problems ahead associated with her gender identity. The parents seem ready to continue to steadfastly support her as she matures.

Is It Any Good?

This documentary serves as an informative and sensitive introduction to the difficulties parents of trans kids face as they seek to protect those kids from intolerance and discrimination. Director Eric Juhola skillfully maps out Kathryn and Jeremy's struggles to sense and respond to Coy's gender differences and support her in her early childhood insistence that she was a girl and not the boy whose genitals she was born with. As Growing Up Coy was completed in 2016, at least 16 states were introducing anti-transgender rights legislation, so although the Colorado ruling supported trans rights, many other parents and trans children still face such challenges across the country. The work of both director Juhola and the Mathises serves to raise awareness about those challenges.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what it means to be different. What is the right thing to do when we encounter people who seem different from ourselves? Is "different" the same thing as "bad"? How did Growing Up Coy affect your opinion?

Coy's parents say that she demonstrated to them as early as age 18 months that she preferred girls' clothes and playing with girls' things. What do you think it means to be a "boy" or a "girl"? Do you think there's more to how humans identify their gender than their genitals or the way they look?

Do you think society should be required to accommodate differences so that people can be treated fairly? Or do you think that society has no obligations to look out for people who don't conform to established "norms"? Why?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : June 16, 2017
• Director : Eric Juhola
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Documentary
• Character Strengths : Compassion , Courage
• Run time : 83 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• Last updated : March 2, 2022

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‘Growing Up Coy’ Explores the Fallout After a Family Fought for Its Transgender Child

By Cara Buckley

• June 6, 2016

Before North Carolina passed its controversial bathroom law, before Caitlyn Jenner transitioned and before “Transparent” became a hit TV series, a little kid in rural Colorado was told she couldn’t use the girls’ restroom at school anymore.

The story of Coy Mathis, a transgender girl who was born a boy, garnered international attention in 2013 when her parents, Jeremy and Kathryn Mathis, filed a complaint accusing the school district of violating the state’s anti-discrimination law.

The Mathises went on to win their case, but not before coming under heavy criticism for putting Coy, then a 6-year-old first grader, in front of reporters and camera crews and on television with Katie Couric. Now, they’re poised to be foisted back into the spotlight with the documentary “Growing Up Coy,” which has its premier e on June 16 in New York at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Directed by Eric Juhola and produced by his husband, Jeremy Stulberg, “Growing Up Coy” picks up with the Mathis family in early 2013, about six weeks before they went public with their case. Together with their lawyer, the Mathises believed that speaking openly was necessary to sway the public in Coy’s favor and to help win her case. But, as the documentary shows, the move unleashed a media feeding frenzy that previewed the fights that would roil America in 2016, fraying the couple’s relationship, drawing excoriations from talking heads and internet trolls, at times alienating their four other children and indelibly etching Coy’s name into cyberspace’s inexhaustible memory bank.

“I think they didn’t know what they were getting into when they started. I don’t think they knew how big it was going to get,” Mr. Juhola said. “I can’t speak for them, but I hope that over time they realize the difference that they made. I think the world is a better place because of them and what they did.”

In the course of the documentary, the Mathises moved from Fountain, Colo., a small town near the headquarters of the conservative organization Focus on the Family, to Aurora, Colo., and have since moved elsewhere in the state. They retreated from public view and are unlikely to participate in the promotion of the documentary.

The film could not be timelier, with transgender issues at the fore and 11 states suing the Obama administration over its directive telling schools to allow students to use whichever bathroom matches their gender identities.

But, Mr. Juhola noted that he and Mr. Stulberg embarked on the project before, in his words, “trans was, quote, trending.” Wanting to document a transgender person’s fight for rights, the filmmakers were equally intrigued by the Mathises’ staunch support of their child.

“They’re really the first generation of parents letting their young kids express themselves as whatever gender they identify with,” Mr. Juhola said. “A lot of older transgender people who we met, who just transitioned in their 40s, 50s and 60s, said, ‘Oh my God, I can’t even imagine how different my life would be if I’d had parents like them.’”

The Mathises’ troubles with Eagleside Elementary School began in late 2012, when the principal told them that Coy, who began identifying as a girl when she was 18 months old, could no longer use the girls’ bathroom. At that point Coy, who as a triplet has a brother and sister, along with two other sisters, had been living as a girl for a while, wearing sparkly, flouncy dresses and long hair, and had been identified as a girl in medical and legal records. In the documentary, the Mathises describe Coy’s misery in her earliest years when the couple — Jeremy is a former Marine and Kathryn is a freelance portrait photographer — dressed her as a boy.

Deeply anxious, Coy refused to go outside, rarely smiled, had meltdowns when told to line up with the boys at school, and asked her parents when they would take her to the doctor to remove her penis. (No such operation was or is being planned.) “It was just what it was,” Mr. Mathis said in the film. “This wasn’t a phase.”

After hearing from the principal, the Mathises contacted Michael D. Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, who wrote to the school board, hoping for a resolution. The board’s response — they cited concerns for other students sharing the bathroom with Coy as she grew older — prompted the Mathises to withdraw their children from the school.

After some soul-searching discussions, Mr. Silverman said, the family agreed that the best action was to take the case public. By showing how achingly normal Coy and her family were, they could put a face — an adorable, impish face — on an issue that many people at the time were not just unfamiliar with but also stigmatized and feared.

“The motivating factor was, how can we create the conditions where we can win for Coy?” Mr. Silverman said in an interview. “It wasn’t clear without speaking publicly that anyone would understand what was at stake.”

The same reasoning probably prompted the Mathises, who did not respond to interview requests for this article, to also agree to the documentary, Mr. Juhola said.

“It’s really about making the world a better place for Coy by putting images out of transgender people that are positive,” Mr. Juhola said.

Just as public controversy raged about Coy’s name and image being made public — the public editor of The New York Times weighed in, while, in Colorado and elsewhere, the Mathises were accused of being child abusers and setting Coy up for harassment — the documentarians also asked themselves about their own responsibility to protect Coy. In the end, Mr. Juhola said, they deferred to the Mathises’ judgment, which Ms. Mathis addressed in the film.

“We weren’t the ones who stigmatized her to begin with,” Ms. Mathis said. “Sending a little girl into a boys bathroom, that’s setting her up to being hurt.”

As the couple, in the film, wrestled with whether to agree to yet another interview (they would turn down offers to be in ads and to star in a reality show), Ms. Mathis also mused, on camera, about the duress of living under the microscope. “Where should we draw the line?” she asked. “We don’t want her to look back and see that we didn’t stand up for her.”

While the news media pressure depicted in the film seems acute, the worst of it largely ended after about six months, in the summer of 2013, when Colorado’s civil rights board ruled in the Mathises’ favor , chastising the school for its “severe and pervasive treatment” and for creating an environment that was “hostile, intimidating or offensive.”

Mr. Juhola said that as far as he knew, the Mathises remain settled, and welcome, in their new community, where Coy, who will turn 10 this year, is living happily as a girl.

“She doesn’t want to have to explain who she is, and talk about how she’s different,” Ms. Mathis says, in the film. “She just wants to be.”

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Growing Up Coy review: candid chronicle of fight for transgender rights

This documentary about a family’s legal battle for their six-year-old’s right to use the girls’ bathroom at school takes on renewed relevance after recent events in North Carolina and its emotional heft makes it more than an advocacy film

T o anyone who follows the news, Coy Mathis is a familiar figure. In 2013, aged just six, she became an emblem in the fight for transgender rights in America . Her parents, Jeremy and Kathryn, have been omnipresent in the press, too, engaging in a highly publicised legal battle and civil rights case to fight for Coy’s right to use the girls’ bathroom at her Colorado elementary school after being denied access by her school district. It was one of the first cases in the US to specifically address transgender bathroom rights.

The outcome of their fight is well-known: the Colorado civil rights division eventually ruled in the Mathis family’s favour, making it an immediate landmark case.

That verdict was reached in June 2013; on 23 March of this year, North Carolina set back the clock by becoming the first US state to ban people from using government-owned restrooms and locker rooms that don’t match the gender written on their birth certificates. Suddenly, Coy’s story is now all the more pertinent. It makes Growing Up Coy, Eric Juhola’s new documentary tracking the personal toll the case took on Coy and her parents, urgent viewing.

The film begins six weeks before the Mathis clan (Jeremy and Kathryn are also parents to triplets and an autistic child) went public with their decision to go to court. Seated before the camera before taking part in an interview with Juhola, Kathryn cracks her neck, her husband bites his lip – both clearly nervous about the journey they’re set to embark on. By introducing them in this candid moment, Juhola deftly humanises the couple before they utter a word.

Not that he needs to work hard to get you on their side. As soon as their case begins to make headlines worldwide, Coy’s parents come under fire. Chiefly, they’re accused of child abuse for allowing their six-year-old to identify as female; a charge that jars with the tolerance and love they show their daughter.

Kathryn, tasked with doing the brunt of press to advocate her child’s rights, is pegged by some quarters as hungry for fame. Watching her see herself interviewed on TV, however, paints a very different picture: visibly uncomfortable in the spotlight, she can barely bring herself to look at the monitor.

Eventually, the constant scrutiny they find themselves under begins to wear down not only Coy, who grows more wary of the camera as the film goes along, but Jeremy and Kathryn’s temperament as parents. “I find myself getting crankier with them,” Kathryn laments near the finish line.

It’s these intimate moments that go a long way to making Growing Up Coy more than a simple advocacy film. Coy’s fight for equal rights is the focus of the documentary, but it’s the family’s willingness to allow Juhola into their turbulent lives that gives it the emotional heft needed to connect with even the most conservative of viewers.

• Growing Up Coy world premieres at the Human Rights Watch film festival in New York on 16 June. It premieres on the west coast in San Francisco during Frameline40 on 25 June, followed by a community tour.
• Documentary films
• First look review
• Transgender

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‘Growing Up Coy’ Review: Transgender Rights Documentary Humanizes the Bathroom Debate

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It’s easy to miss the most telling moment in “Growing Up Coy,” when six-year-old Coy Mathis catches a gentle reporter off-guard with a hug. The question that evoked such affection? “So you want to be able to use the girls’ restroom, like the other little girls?”

The documentary , directed by Eric Juhola (producer of “Broken Heart Land” and “Off The Grid: Life on the Mesa”) and coming to  Netflix on January 6th, follows Coy and her family as they challenged a school district in Colorado for Coy’s right to use the girls’ bathroom as a transgender girl. The case made headlines in 2013 when the Colorado Rights Division ruled that Coy had the right to use the girls’ bathroom under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. The language in the ruling went above and beyond, setting a critical early precedent for transgender student rights in a battle that continues today.

READ MORE: ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ Protests: Why We Should Listen to Trans Activists Criticizing The Milestone Film — Editorial

At the center of it all is Coy, a cherubic-faced child who loves pink, and her hard-working parents who just want the best for their children. Kathryn and Jeremy Mathis, aged 27 and 31 at the time of filming, reside in the small town of Fountain, Colorado with their five children. They live modestly while Jeremy is in school and Kathryn works as a photographer. They don’t have any help around the house, and Jeremy spends long days at school, leaving Kathryn at home with the children, two of whom have special needs. Kathryn, who was raised Christian Scientist, and Jeremy, a former marine, are not exactly the types one would expect to lead the charge for transgender rights.

“It just was what it was,” explains Jeremy, after admitting some initial reservations upon learning the child he thought was his son was actually his daughter. Juhola sets the scene with establishing shots of a Focus On The Family outpost, and a sign proclaiming “Always Love Your Country, Never Trust Your Government.” Recounting her painful Christian Scientist upbringing, Kathryn imagines that life for her children: “Lily, technically by the book, would have just died. Coy, regardless of how she feels, would be forced to be a boy.”

READ MORE: ‘Looking’ in Memphis: Joe Swanberg Collaborator Morgan Jon Fox Honors Southern Gay Life in ‘Feral’

This offers a clue to the strength Kathryn summons when Coy’s school stops allowing her to use the girls’ bathroom, reversing an earlier position. The Mathises enlist the services of Michael Silverman from the Transgender Legal Defense Fund, who flies in from New York to prepare them for the ensuing media maelstrom. When Coy takes Silverman’s hand to say goodbye, she does so with the earnest gratitude of someone well beyond her years.

Coy and her family endure six months of on-camera interviews, press conferences, and pestering emails, all while Kathryn is home-schooling the children since taking Coy out of school. Before the first press conference, Coy announces: “We’re going to put on a show.” But as a barrage of reporters cycle in and out of the small Mathis living room, the once camera-ready Coy is no longer so thrilled. Feeling ignored, her brother begins acting out. In a moving display of his loyalty towards Coy, only by adopting a robot persona and speaking in the third person does he bashfully admit his conflicted feelings about her gender identity. Then, Kathryn and Jeremy decide to separate.

READ MORE: ‘Growing Up Coy’ Trailer: Netflix to Stream Documentary About Transgender Six-Year-Old Who Launched a National Debate

While “Growing Up Coy” doesn’t break any stylistic molds, its story does the heavy lifting. Juhola (who co-produced with his husband, Jeremy Stulberg) ekes out as much narrative possible from subjects who are justifiably exhausted by cameras. He avoids holding them in such high regard as to hide the disquieting truths of their situation, such as Kathryn’s exhaustion and frustration with Jeremy’s long absences. What could have been a by-the-numbers “issue doc” becomes an honest snapshot of an ordinary family in extraordinary circumstances.

By exploring the price the family pays in their quest for equality, Juhola emphasizes the human cost of discrimination. The unassuming Mathises didn’t go looking for this fight — it came to their doorstep and they answered the call. Thanks to their hard work and the work of countless gender warriors before, Coy will grow up in a world that is much more accepting of people like herself. Here’s hoping their story is the first in a long line of victories.

“Growing Up Coy” is available to stream on Netflix on January 6th. 

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‘growing up coy’: film review.

A Colorado family fights for transgender rights on the elementary-school level.

By THR Staff

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Eric Juhola’s Growing Up Coy sports a misleading name that hints at an intriguing movie that might someday be made: one that would follow young Coy Mathis, a trans girl who was born male, through the turbulent time when she asserted a female identity in public, to adolescence and adulthood, chronicling the way acceptance and the lack of it shaped her personality. This movie, though, arriving before its namesake hits 10 years old, is less about Coy than about the parents who accepted her assertions early on and then publicly fought for her right to use the school bathroom of her choosing. Sympathetic and fortuitously timed but not a film to change minds about this rancor-generating topic, it will play well with trans audiences but is best suited for small screens.

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Beginning six weeks before Kathryn and Jeremy Mathis very publicly filed a suit insisting that Coy be allowed to use her school’s girls’ bathroom, the film provides an account of how things came to this point. It’s a matter-of-fact narrative that brooks no questioning of the couple’s decisions: Having gravitated toward girls’ clothing as a toddler and soon informing her parents that she was not a boy, Coy was allowed to publicly present herself that way early in her kindergarten year. Though the response was far more accepting than one might expect in deeply conservative Fountain, Colo ., the Mathises objected to school administrators’ insistence that Coy could use a non-gendered private bathroom or go with the boys, but wouldn’t be allowed in the group bathroom used by girls. As this policy ran afoul of a Colorado antidiscrimination law, they enlisted Michael Silverman of New York’s Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund to help with a lawsuit.

The Bottom Line A sympathetic, of-the-moment doc for the already converted.

Discussing Coy’s plight early on, Kathryn says the school is “sending a little girl into a boys’ bathroom, and that’s setting her up to get hurt — that’s how people get killed.” She doesn’t acknowledge that this is almost exactly the kind of thing people on the other side of the issue say, fearing that their daughters are threatened by others who, whatever identity they profess, are not the same. Juhola shares this perspective, operating as if the parents’ position is the only one a reasonable person could take. When the film does show opposing views, it is only after the case has attracted global media coverage, and the mean-spirited voices Juhola selects give the impression that there are only two sides here, love and hate.

For viewers who aren’t so convinced of that, a couple of interactions onscreen may give pause. Snuggling together with Coy, Kathryn asks how she responds “if someone asks if you’re a boy or a girl.” Shrugging and seemingly annoyed by the question, Coy says, “I just don’t know about anything.” Those who’ve accused the family of being too quick to accept momentous life changes made by such a young child will take this interaction and run with it. But Growing Up Coy seems to think that finding a compassionate, informed interviewee to explore such questions on camera would be tantamount to betraying this sweet child and the family that has sacrificed greatly to do what it believes is right. Perhaps, 20 years from now, the first wave of eagerly supported trans children will tell their own stories in a more nuanced way.

Venue: Human Rights Watch Film Festival Production company: Still Point Pictures Director: Eric Juhola Producers: Eric Juhola , Jeremy Stulberg Executive producers: Diana Holtzberg Directors of photography: Jason Oldak , Randy Stulberg , Giga Shane Editor: Jeremy Stulberg Composer: Christopher Libertino Sales: Diana Holtzberg , Films Transit

Not rated, 82 minutes

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Growing Up Coy

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Auri Mathis (Self) Coy Mathis (Self) Dakota Mathis (Self) Jeremy Mathis (Self) Kathryn Mathis (Self) Lily Mathis (Self) Max Mathis (Self) Michael Silverman (Self)

Eric Juhola

A Colorado family is thrust into the international media spotlight when they fight for the rights of their 6-year-old transgender daughter in a landmark civil rights case.

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Growing Up Coy

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• Eric Juhola – Director

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“Growing Up Coy” is a feature-length documentary that centers around a young Colorado family who engages in a highly publicized legal battle and landmark civil rights case, as they fight for their 6-year-old transgender daughter Coy Mathis’s right to use the girls’ bathroom at her school. The Mathis family’s case in 2013, was the first in the United States to decide in favor of a transgender youth using the bathroom facility that corresponds with their gender identity. The film asks a universal question that any parent could face: “How far would you go to fight for your child’s equal rights?”

Filmmaker Notes:

Three and a half years ago, before “trans was trending” and Caitlyn Jenner was Cait, I flew from New York to Colorado to meet a 6-year- old transgender girl after meeting her family’s attorney in New York. This 6-year-old’s parents were about to embark on a years- long battle with her elementary school for banning her from the girls’ bathroom.

Like most LGBTQ children of the 80’s and 90’s, I couldn’t imagine having publicly supportive parents at such a young age. Meeting Jeremy and Kathryn Mathis, I realized we were at the beginning of a cultural shift – where for the first time in history, parents are starting to come out in support of their young trans kids, allowing them to express their gender identity openly.

However, with young children, the nurturing of gender non-conformity remains controversial. Even after 2015’s year of mainstream transgender visibility, “Growing Up Coy” raises many questions about what it means to grow up transgender in America today, and how one family deals with world-wide media scrutiny while fighting for their transgender daughter’s right to use the girl’s bathroom at her elementary school in a landmark civil rights case.

An estimated 0.1 to 0.5% of the population is transgender (or experience some degree of gender dysphoria). Though this is a relatively small percentage of the population, suicide and harassment statistics from within the transgender community are staggering.

These numbers demonstrate the need for education, support, and help for these kids and their families. “Transgender youth rights” is an emerging civil and human rights area, and has been little explored in mainstream culture until recently. Coy’s case has garnered media attention from all over the world, spotlighting the issue. In light of the recent vitriolic dialogue in our country, I am hopeful that this film helps to create a new opportunities for discussion and exchange of ideas between parents and school communities that may not know how to proceed when they are introduced to their first transgender students.

I also hope that the film will highlight the sacrifice made by ordinary people who take a stand for the rights of all of us in the LGBTQ population. For that, I think Coy & her family, as well those who put themselves in the public eye to stand for equal rights, have put us all in a debt of gratitude.

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Growing Up Coy Reviews

If you're a trans person, this battle might be all too familiar to you and you might not get a lot of out of this documentary, but if you're looking to learn and feel for trans people, Growing Up Coy is a good option.

Full Review | Aug 17, 2021

A powerfully empathic film for the cause of trans rights.

Full Review | Feb 9, 2018

Parents fight for trans child's rights in informative docu.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 27, 2017

The doc is most fascinating as a portrait of a humble family, one with five children scraping to get by, facing a battle they might not be fully prepared for, but ready to go to the wall for a child they love unconditionally.

Full Review | Oct 12, 2016

The film is strongest at showing the personal stress from what follows [the law suit] in intimate verité style. . .for this family living in the media storm is a nightmare.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 7, 2016

The story of a landmark case about the value of state antidiscrimination laws to protect the rights of transgender people.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 16, 2016

Coy's fight for equal rights is the focus of the documentary, but it's the family's willingness to allow Juhola into their turbulent lives that gives it the emotional heft needed to connect with even the most conservative of viewers.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 15, 2016

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Growing up coy.

Directed by Eric Juhola

A Colorado family is thrust into the international media spotlight when they fight for the rights of their 6-year-old transgender daughter in a landmark civil rights case.

Director Director

Eric Juhola

Producers Producers

Jeremy Stulberg Randy Stulberg Eric Juhola

Editor Editor

Jeremy Stulberg

Cinematography Cinematography

Jason Oldak Giga Shane

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Diana Holtzberg

Composer Composer

Christopher Libertino

Still Point Pictures

Alternative Titles

Coy'u Büyütmek, 코이 이야기

Documentary

Releases by Date

16 jun 2016, releases by country.

• Premiere Human Rights Watch Film Festival

86 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by vee ★★★

man this is such a sweet documentary but the poster makes it look like a surreal neon horror film??

Review by Zā ★★

I have no idea what this poster is meant to be, but okay. Anyway, Coy is a cool person and you probably heard her story about her and her family fighting for her right to use the correct restroom awhile back. Of course you also heard that the Colorado legislation finally made it into law. Which all of that is great, but this documentary is just the hum drum subject and other stuff are cool, but can't really make things into a 90 minute film. Why everything has to be 90 minutes, I still can't figure it out.

Review by Hannah Sites ★★

I appreciate that this documentary had a focus on trans rights, which can be incredibly rare in the media, but I didn’t love the way they went about it. There wasn’t much time dedicated to Coy herself and most of the focus seemed to be on her parents. There were also a lot of times that the language in the film made it seem like there are only two genders and that those genders can be defined by things like colors and clothing. I wish the conversation had been less focused on the gender binary and more on gender as a social construct.

Review by RobertW ★★

The poster makes this look like a straight to dvd-sequel to Neon Demon. Kind of weird.

The film itself has the ol' classic documentary-thingy-problem where the subject matter is way more interesting than the execution itself, and thus deserves a better film.

Review by mezzy ★★½

that is one weird ass poster. also, how are you gonna include coy’s name in the title of your documentary and barely even focus on any of her own thoughts and experiences??

Review by Michael McNeely ★★★★

Challenging doc that shows the difficulties of being the forefront of a human rights battle. There may be a right side, but what happens to Coy now?

Review by Alice Fanny ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

when Coy put her Wonder Woman costume on I swear I could feel my heart melt. this documentary is so relevant, so interesting and so good that it brought me real close to tears multiple times. thank you Kathlyn & Jeremy for being wonderful people and wonderful parents. you make the world a better place.

Review by AHSB ★

The main problem with this documentary (besides the horrifying poster and reality TV show title) was that while it purports to be about Coy, the focus was on Coy's parents. Very little screentime was devoted to Coy and Coy's voice was rarely heard. Some very interesting issues were raised but they were not explored and there was the feeling of a very brief story being stretched out to fill a certain amount of time.

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Growing Up Coy (2016) Stream and Watch Online

Watch 'growing up coy' online.

Need to watch ' Growing Up Coy ' on your TV or mobile device at home? Finding a streaming service to buy, rent, download, or view the Eric Juhola-directed movie via subscription can be a challenge, so we here at Moviefone want to help you out. Read on for a listing of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription options - along with the availability of 'Growing Up Coy' on each platform when they are available. Now, before we get into the various whats and wheres of how you can watch 'Growing Up Coy' right now, here are some specifics about the Still Point Pictures documentary flick. Released June 16th, 2016, 'Growing Up Coy' stars The movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 26 min, and received a user score of 70 (out of 100) on TMDb, which assembled reviews from 20 well-known users. Curious to know what the movie's about? Here's the plot: "A Colorado family is thrust into the international media spotlight when they fight for the rights of their 6-year-old transgender daughter in a landmark civil rights case." 'Growing Up Coy' is currently available to rent, purchase, or stream via subscription on Kanopy, and Amazon Video .

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Growing Up Coy

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Growing Up Coy

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• Eric Juhola ( Director )
• Auri Mathis ( Special appearance )
• Lily Mathis ( Special appearance )
• Coy Mathis ( Special appearance )
• Jeremy Mathis ( Special appearance )
• Michael Silverman ( Special appearance )
• Max Mathis ( Special appearance )
• Kathryn Mathis ( Special appearance )
• Dakota Mathis ( Special appearance )
• Christopher Libertino ( Writer )

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Growing Up Coy Reviews

• 1 hr 22 mins
• Documentary
• Watchlist Where to Watch

A look at a Colorado family's public battle for the rights of their transgender daughter.

Growing Up Coy

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Growing Up Coy streaming: where to watch online?

You can buy "Growing Up Coy" on Amazon Video as download or rent it on Amazon Video online.

A Colorado family is thrust into the international media spotlight when they fight for the rights of their 6-year-old transgender daughter in a landmark civil rights case.

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• Trivia During post production, the producers worked with an orchestra of LA based musicians at Warner Brothers to produce a 16 minute musical suite. This was arranged by seasoned musical composer Sean Johnson and produced over three sessions. The Sight Musical Suite is based on the music of the film "Sight" and has three movements: 1st movement: "The East" (with mostly Chinese traditional music instruments featuring erhu): An ancient culture, its tradition, introspectiveness and sensitivity, love, tragedy, and fight; 2nd movement: "The West" (with all Western music instruments): Freedom, opportunity, optimistic, powerful, creative, failing and pulling oneself back up! 3rd movement: "The East and the West" (with BOTH Eastern and Western music instruments): It shows that the melodies are in fact the most beautiful, when played by BOTH the East and the West music instruments! If one is willing to learn from others, to seek common ground, based on shared humanity, then lives will all be much better, leading to hope for the future.

User reviews 52

• suzannescherr
• May 27, 2024
• When was Sight released? Powered by Alexa
• May 24, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Open River Entertainment
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• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• May 26, 2024

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• Runtime 1 hour 43 minutes

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