My experiences as a transgender woman have been extremely difficult. Throughout the start of my transition and even now, I have dealt with intense gender dysphoria. This is especially difficult as with experiencing discrimination for being transgender, my dysphoria only seemed to intensify. I have vivid experiences of being called slurs, harassed, and even discriminated against in a past occupation I held. Although there are laws against discrimination in the workplace it still seems to occur. With my experience, it was extremely difficult to navigate through the situation. My voice was almost always silenced or just blatantly ignored. A lot of the times I was told I was overreacting or just too sensitive about the situation and to not take things so seriously. Due to this being an ongoing occurrence I decided I needed to remove myself from that toxic situation. Along with this, my father was not very supportive of me being transgender since coming out. He has always and still does say, "I have and will always have three sons." Every time I hear these words in makes me tear up as it seems that he will never see me for the person I truly am. Although these were difficult experiences to deal with, things started to get better. When I started college in the fall of 2022, I moved in to inclusive housing. This allowed me to get to know people in the LGBTQIA+ community and had honestly improved my overall well-being. It allowed me to begin loving myself for who I am as I was able to finally see that it is okay to be trans. Something I have always struggled with was hating myself for who I am and this helped me get out of that mindset. It was going pretty well until the fall of 2023. During this time, I was at my lowest mentally due to how severe my dysphoria was getting along with discrimination I was facing because of being trans. It got to the point I was losing hope in everything until spring rolled around. I was able to finally schedule an appoint with gender medicine and begin my medical transition. After starting hormones I have never been happier and can now see the light at the end of the tunnel again. Being transgender is not an easy experience whatsoever, but I would not trade it for the world. I have come in to the mindset that I am meant to be who I am and I need to be there to help other people like me. This is why I am going into the field of psychology so I can help LGBTQ youth and adults alike learn how to find themselves and love themselves for who they are.

I am a student at Pennsylvania State University currently studying psychology with intent to focus on developmental psychology. Childhood development trauma can carry severe consequences well into adulthood. The littlest of things can cause a ripple of outcomes. For example, those who experience trauma/abuse can be at higher risk for negative mental health outcomes. Some of these include depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and attachment styles just to list a few. Along with these comes an increase of suicidality among teens and adults. I plan on becoming a mental health care professional who specializes in developmental as well as gender psychology. I want to help youth minimize the effects of trauma and reduce chances for personality disorders. I am a transgender woman so during childhood, I faced many challenges. I grew up in a household with a very conservative father who would almost always tell me I could not act a certain way because I was a "boy" and this caused a lot of mental stressors later on. I remember when I first was coming to terms with my sexuality, my dad would always make homophobic statements or even say the derogatory term for gay individuals. It was terrifying to hear as a child and very hurtful. Due to this, I ended up not coming out until way later which had a detrimental effect on my mental health. Throughout childhood, my household was also a very loud household. Every little thing would upset my father and he would have outbursts of yelling and sometimes would even threaten us when we would misbehave. This is the very reason many people in situations like these tend to fear confrontation and aggressive appearing individuals. It can also cause people not to want to speak up when being harassed or told something they disagree with as they may fear getting screamed at or hit. Just recently I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and before this I struggled with depression and anxiety. I know others as well who grew up in mentally abusive households and they were diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. This disorder specifically is a trauma based disorder which can be extremely difficult to live with and be lifelong. I aspire to be a mental health professional who can help those struggling with the effects of trauma/abuse get through it and be able to live more fulfilling lives, and most importantly I want people to know that they are so much more than their trauma.

I am a transgender woman who struggles with gender dysphoria, bipolar disorder, severe depression and anxiety. I started studying psychology in the fall of 2022 and have been dealing with mental health issues since my sophomore year of high school. Dealing with mental health issues is definitely not easy as it seems like your mind is constantly working against you. Starting out my mental health was not good, but it was pretty manageable during my first year. For the most part I was able to get assignments done on time and rarely miss a class. In the fall of 2023, I was at my lowest point I had ever been. Life at the time seemed almost not worth living at all and due to how severe things got, it became debilitating at times. I was at a point where I began to turn to drugs for comfort. The only drug I used was marijuana, and during this period of time my use of this drug increased drastically. My high usage of marijuana could have definitely made things worse as with heavy usage, it can cause psychosis. Sometimes when being under the influence, it seemed to make me even more emotional and made me feel emotions more intensely. It was a scary 4 months of just dealing with my thoughts and it was extremely difficult to get out of. A major challenge I was facing was not being able to get out of bed. This interfered with my class schedule; however, my professors were very understanding and worked with me. During the months of November and December, I was able to start getting in to appointments with psychiatry. Before this, I was on medications, but they never really seemed to help long-term. In November, I mainly was seeing therapists and specialists who I seen frequently due to being a high risk patient. I continued to have these frequent appointments until I could get in with my long-term psychiatrist. This was when they discovered that I struggle with bipolar disorder and they found that my depressive episodes seemed to follow my manic episodes. I was manic quite frequently which is why I experienced these intense highs and lows in my mood. This was the reason anti-depressants were not helping fully as I needed a mood stabilizer to make the manic episodes become more manageable. When January came around I was definitely improving mentally and was relieved to finally be out of the dark place I was in for months. Since then, I have been continuously getting better and receiving the proper treatment needed. My experience with mental health has also inspired me to want to continue studying psychology even more. Due to experiencing mental health struggles, I know how scary things can get, and I want to help other people dealing with these issues as well.

My name is Serena, and I am a transgender woman. Being transgender is definitely a challenge given the circumstances of the political atmosphere as well as just dealing with day-to-day life. I struggle with intense gender dysphoria which can be debilitating at times, but I always persevere. In the past I have had many friends come and go, and during the start of my transition I lost a lot of friends. One instance specifically was with a girl who I knew for a few years and was totally accepting of me at first when I came out as gay; however, when I came out as transgender, she insisted that I was confused about my identity and proceeded to misgender and deadname me throughout high school. Whenever the covid-19 pandemic hit, it was almost at perfect timing. The pandemic lockdowns had allowed me to socially transition to the point where I was "cis-passing" and from then on I rarely was misgendered. From this point I started to notice other transgender individuals on social media as well as in person being discriminated against due to their gender identities. As someone who had dealt with this and struggles with dysphoria, it ignited a flame in me to want to help those in these positions. How did I want to help other transgender people? Becoming a mental health specialist who specializes in transgender health care is how. I always wanted to work in the field of psychology and given my experience with being a transgender woman, I knew how difficult it can be. Helping others who have similar situations to mine would be a dream come true. Being transgender and dealing with mental health issues is almost always a packaged deal and the importance for specialized healthcare is ever growing. Another reason is I know some transgender individuals who went down a dark path due to societal pressures and harassment, and I want to be somebody that can help reignite their flame to keep going. I am currently a student studying psychology at Pennsylvania State University, and I plan on attending graduate school after. I am pursuing a bachelor’s in psychology and would like to pursue a master’s degree in developmental psychology and gender studies. I aspire to be a person who other transgender people can come to in times of need as well as someone who can guide them along their journey of living in their truth. I would like to also advocate for transgender youth in America and be the voice for those who may not be heard.