 Using her own observations of lesbians in the 1950s and 1960s, she wrote a series of nonfiction books about lesbians under the pen name Ann Aldrich from 1955 to 1972.In 1972 she switched genres and pen names once more to begin writing for young adults, and became quite successful as M.E.Kerr, producing over 20 novels and winning multiple awards including the American Library Association's lifetime award for young-adult literature, the ALA Margaret A. Edwards Award.