Age and the Trans Experience
by: Alexander Fatato
A good friend of mine, at the age of twenty, recently came out as a trans woman. My friend has expressed to me multiple times that she wishes that she got the chance to come out at a younger age than she did. She feels that young trans people that come out before puberty, or in their early teens, assimilate better and are able to feel like they belong. This could be a combination of access to hormones, familial acceptance, socioeconomic status, and mental health. I began to wonder how the age one transitions impacts the quality of life in trans individuals. It is important to acknowledge throughout this article that not all who transition in their preteens get the chance to receive hormonal treatment. Not all trans individuals receive sex reassignment surgery. Self-discovery is a process that is messy and can take a very long time. Every situation is nuanced and deserves understanding and respect. I would be hesitant to say that any part of this process is easier at a younger age. But I’d like to examine the differences between people who experience their teens as a trans person and those who come out later. Trans activist Janet Mock’s experience as a young person certainly barred her from coming out earlier than she did. However sure she was that she felt like a woman, her circumstances largely prevented her from acting on her feelings. The time period that she grew up in, her family, and perhaps her socioeconomic status all contributed to this reality. In her autobiography, Redefining Realness, Mock speaks on her preteen experience: “I was living in the murkiness of sexuality and gender. I knew I was viewed as a boy. I knew I liked boys. I knew I felt like a girl. Like many young trans people, I hadn’t learned terms like trans, transgender, or transsexual —definitions that would have offered me clarity about my gender identity”. Mock didn’t have the resources or knowledge to transition at this time. It led to confusion and future hardship throughout her teen years. This ultimately led to her becoming a sex worker for a short time in order to afford her surgery. Mock recalls this decision with regret, and nobody else should feel they must resort to such measures to afford their surgery. Similarly, a recent issue of National Geographic introduced the reader to a 17 year old trans woman named Emmie Smith, who said, “When [I was] 12, I didn’t feel like a boy, but I didn’t know it was possible to be a girl”. As important as it is to increase cultural awareness of the transgender experience, increasing early childhood education on gender expression could help solve a lot of issues and confusion that some young people face. Unfortunately, it will be difficult to introduce education reform to a largely uninformed public. The clear advantage of transitioning before one’s teen years would be the chance to offset the effects of puberty. When a trans person makes their way through puberty, they begin to develop features that, oftentimes, do not accurately represent themselves. The development of breasts or facial hair can be a traumatizing experience when the individual feels that it con-