Woman Transitions to Male Then Changes Her Mind—'There Was Something Wrong'
Newsweek that she "wasn't accepted" socially and gradually came to believe that "there was something wrong" with her.Comments about her lack of femininity, and her own unease about her body, caused Ismail to disassociate from these feelings so she wouldn't have to deal with them."People would mistake me for a boy when I was younger, or tell me that I shouldn't wear boys' clothes," Ismail said. "When I was around the age of 11, I was told by my uncle that I should shave my legs, and the girls told me I had hairy arms."This made me feel like I wasn't a normal, feminine girl.
When my breasts started to grow around that age, I felt immense discomfort because I now had to wear a bra. My body was changing, and I knew I would have to change as well, but at the time I didn't feel ready to."She explained that she "swept a lot of feelings under the rug" for years before starting to consider the gravity of what she felt.
By the time Ismail turned 18, she began socially transitioning by dressing in men's clothes and going by the name Issa.The transgender community is constantly growing as more individuals no longer feel bound by the constraints of earlier generations.
Now, more people feel able to embrace their true identity expression and it's estimated that 1.6 million Americans currently identify as transgender.The data, collected by the Williams Institute of Law, also reveals that 18 percent of the people who identify as transgender are ages 13 to 17.
