“Something that keeps coming up for me is the idea that no matter what, I will look like or will feel like an outsider. Sometimes I’m really proud of that and happy about it. I don’t necessarily want to look like just another person on the street. But then the idea that I’ll never look like just anyone else sometimes feels very isolating. And I get upset about it. Because it feels like no matter what, I’ll be the odd one out. I will be weird. There is nothing I can physically do to look normal. And sometimes that’s very challenging for me socially. I’m so happy with where I am, and I like the way I look and dress and behave. But at the same time, the idea that I’m just one step outside of what’s normal or what everyone else does can feel bad and tiring. For some people, that will never change for them. They will always have rigid ideas about what people should look like. But I’m optimistic that we will progress as a society because I feel like these days there is so much more variety in how men and women dress. There is more fluidity. And less of an obvious mold to fall into. I definitely self-visualize not as a woman who is doing something weird, but as a man who chooses to dress in a feminine way. If I could be looked at as just a guy who’s wearing a skirt today, then that is my ideal.”
— Q (he/him, they/them), 22, non-binary/do what makes you happy, bisexual.
