Gender Identity: Being Who You Are
There’s no right way to live authentically, what that looks like for you is going to be very different from what that looks like for someone else, even if you both identify the same way. You may feel pressure from people around you to come up with a clear explanation for your gender, but it’s not something you have to perfectly translate to other people, and it’s definitely not something people have to know in order treat you with respect.
For many people, how they identify, what pronouns they use, and the way they express their gender are incredibly important parts of who they are. Living in a way that’s more true to themselves can give them more confidence, a higher self-esteem, and make them feel better equipped to navigate the world. If the gender they were assigned at birth doesn’t feel right for them, they may change their clothes, change their pronouns, change their name, and change their body until it feels better aligned with what they know their gender to be. We call this transitioning, and it can also look totally different from person to person.
Our info page Identifying As Trans talks more about this, and addresses some commonly asked questions about being trans. Remember that figuring out your gender identity isn’t a linear process, meaning you may find experimenting with your expression comes before using any new terms or names, and vice versa. Passing may be very important to you and you may want to take steps toward being perceived as cisgender like going on hormones, or maybe finding the right language to describe your gender identity is enough to make you feel good in your body. There’s no “right way” to transition, and there’s no “right way” to be trans.
If you find yourself ready to tell others about discovering your gender identity, our info page Coming Out goes into detail about how to do it, and some strategies on dealing with what comes next. If you want to do some further reading, or find more support with this process our page Sexuality and Gender Resources for Youth has some links to organizations that can help.
