The first trans kid I met

I had my first interaction with a trans person when I was around the age of ten. This memory came to me recently and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I had forgotten about this person until I started reflecting on my own gender identity. I was at my friend’s birthday sleepover.

Today I woke up hating myself.

This past week, I came out as trans. Nearly everyone has been exceptionally accepting and supportive, but all the support in the world can’t take away the gender dysphoria I feel today. I want to try to explain this, and a lot of it may seem contradictory, but just try to stay with me. Anyone

Welcome to New Beginnings

I’ve been living in Philadelphia for about three weeks now, and I’m finally starting to settle in. This week, my roommate and I took on the challenge of dogsitting my parents’ two very rural Pennsylvania dogs. That’s Bailey on the left (Labradoodle) and Margo on the right (Golden Retriever). Originally, Bailey was mine. I took

What is gender anyway??

When I busted out of the womb in 1994, a doctor took a look at my genitals and assigned me female at birth. Now, for most of my life, this never bothered me. My parents weren’t super gender-oriented, so I was mostly allowed to express myself in whatever ways I wanted. This looked like a

The Birds and the Bees

As none of you may know, my neighbor is a very kind and gentle elderly woman who loves gardening, nature, and birds. She has multiple bird baths and houses set up on her property. A regular ornithologist, she just likes watching them. As far as I know she has never owned a bird. After all,

Hi, it’s Joelle.

I’ve been working on my left arm’s tattoo sleeve for a couple years now. It doesn’t really have a theme, but it has meaning. On the back of my forearm is a sprig of wheat. Vincent van Gogh wrote a letter to his dear brother Theo in January of 1885. In this letter, he wrote