How to do the trans thing

A2 levels / Ashe years

2015 was really my first real year as a full on transgender. With a fitting name and terrible dress sense, I practiced my makeup and continued gaining much needed support from Instagram.

Transgenderie Wendery

I actually went out to ASDA (Walmart) and bought myself a few bras in my chest size. I got some DD cups because hey, when you can choose, why not go huge?! I felt great putting them on and wearing them out. Stuffed with socks bound by gaffer-tape, I had the perfect temporary fix to my major dysprosia.

They let me express myself on Instagram and, more importantly, at social gatherings. I would only wear them to special events with friends because I knew my voice let me down massively.

Practice makes perfect! Makeup skills take time

See, the issue with being biologically male is puberty shoves some apple down your gob and loses your voice from a tenor to a bass. I could sing falsetto really well until that Adam bloke ruined my voice box.. It also meant I had a lump on my neck, hair on my face and, as cocky as it sounds (no pun intended), a bigger door knocker.

This meant that, when I practiced my female side in public, I had to rely on other people to do my talking as I communicated in a desperate form of drunk sign language. I couldn't speak, because it would become instantly clear I was a member of the hose owning family, and I couldn't let people stare for too long as my biological gender would start to show through my makeup.

Later on, after I started to realise what worked and what didn't, I actually started getting gendered properly. It was generally people calling me madam before hearing my voice, or I assume people knew what I was trying to do, but it was happening by strangers and friends alike. My dead name started to get use less and my happiness was steadily increasing.

I took the next obvious step and got my name changed to Ashe on the school register. This was a huge step for me and it meant people started asking me the question 'what name would you prefer?' This was a stride in the right direction as it meant I could educate the ignorant and inform people who didn't know quite how "alternative" I was.