Shrier wrote several op-eds for the Wall Street Journal from 2018 to 2020. One such editorial in 2019 focused on the reasons for the increase in young women who are transgender. Because that editorial garnered much attention and publicity, Shrier’s agent encouraged her to write a book about the topic. That book, Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, was published in 2020 and ignited controversy. In the book, Shrier attributes the increase in girls identifying as transgender to psychological conditions and argues that girls are doing so mistakenly because social capital is built into such marginalized identities. She does not acknowledge the neurobiological evidence that gender identity resides in the brain, so those who are transgender have the body of one gender and the brain of another (Ferguson, Christopher J. “A Review of ‘Irreversible Damage’ by Abigail Shrier.” Psychology Today, 19 January 2021). As a result, there have been credible claims of transphobia made against Shrier, particularly in light of the fact that she interviewed hundreds of parents in preparing the manuscript but paid only superficial attention to science.

Shrier’s objective in writing both Irreversible Damage and Bad Therapy is to engage in advocacy, much like an editorialist for any newspaper does.