Stella O'Malley
Stella O'Malley is an Irish psychotherapist, writer and speaker. She has written books on parenting and mental wellbeing, including Cotton Wool Kids, Bully-Proof Kids and Fragile. In 2018, she presented the Channel 4 documentary Trans Kids: It's Time to Talk.
Read more about her on this site: Stella O'Malley — Substack and Stella O'Malley — Bully-Proof Kids.
What you can find
Her website features articles, information about her books, parent coaching and her podcasts, including Gender: A Wider Lens with Sasha Ayad and Beyond Gender, launched in 2025.
Why she is on this list
O'Malley is the founder of Genspect, an organisation that takes a critical view of gender-affirming care. Together with Sasha Ayad and Lisa Marchiano, she wrote When Kids Say They're Trans, a guide for parents who are cautious about taking rapid medical steps. Her work is controversial; critics consider her part of the anti-trans movement. See young people and critical perspectives.
Background and personal experience
O'Malley was born in Dublin in 1973 or 1974 and lives in Birr, County Offaly. She has said that from the age of four until she was thirteen or fourteen, she insisted that she was a boy. This stopped after puberty, and at sixteen she says she felt comfortable as a woman. She regularly refers to this personal experience in the debate. Her books were published by Irish publishers: Cotton Wool Kids in 2015, Bully-Proof Kids in 2017 and Fragile in 2019. In 2023, What Your Teen Is Trying to Tell You was published, followed on 31 October by the book she wrote with Ayad and Marchiano. On Irish television, she worked as a psychotherapist on programmes for RTÉ and TG4.
Organisations and podcasts
In 2020, O'Malley co-founded the Gender Dysphoria Support Network and the International Association of Therapists for Desisters and Detransitioners. In June 2021, she founded Genspect. An overview of the organisation's team and advisory board can be found at genspect.nl. She is also a clinical adviser to SEGM. The podcast Gender: A Wider Lens began in December 2020. In September 2019, she and Lisa Marchiano had already launched the podcast Secrets of the Mother World.
Controversies
In August 2021, O'Malley co-authored an article in The Irish Times opposing the inclusion of gender identity in an Irish bill that bans conversion therapy. Student union USI and the Trans Writers Union subsequently called for a boycott. In March 2022, an NHS event at which she was due to speak was cancelled following complaints about the speakers. In May 2022, an audio recording was leaked in which she said that, in her view, empathy was not necessary. An Irish parliamentarian raised questions about this, after which O'Malley sent legal letters alleging defamation. In August 2025, the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy published criticism of what it called O'Malley's and Genspect's anti-trans stance. O'Malley subsequently began defamation proceedings against the association. These incidents show that her position is also contested within her own profession.