It’s hard to articulate properly the pain it brings me that society is so rightly fucked that so many trans people never get to feel truly pretty. That for our entire lives, there is always something holding us back from self love, because that’s the narrative fed to us.

I simply wish to live in a world where I can tell my friends how radiant I think they are and have them be able to believe me fully. To be able to accept those words, without the creeping doubt that has been hammered into our heads from the very beginning interfering.

I so deeply yearn to warm peoples hearts not arm their defenses every time I remind them how their smile lights up my life. And until that stigma surrounding trans beauty is gone, I worry about that being possible.