Thank you Paula — while there is perhaps no “universal” experience of young trans women, this is spot on for far more people than just you.

The bullying, the shaming, the othering — the brutality — and the constancy of being told what one is Not. Which continues after transition. Often, the FIRST time a trans woman is actually called a man is once she has revealed her womanhood. She’s been taunted as a girl (or labeled a fag*ot) by the boys AND the girls, until the point where she finds the right words for herself. And only then does she learn about her “Maleness”… its almost like the real point is to diminish those we perceive as effeminate “men” no matter what their personal truth may be. Just as this author imagines she knows of what she speaks. One more voice saying, “ you don’t know yourself or your life — allow me to explain it to you.”

Thank you for sharing some of your story — which rings FAR more true in the reality survived by trans women.