Trans authors reflect on their journeys in Letter To My Little Trans Self

Guest writers of a book featuring the voices of trans and non-binary people have said they contributed in a bid to reflect on how far they had come.

Letter To My Little Trans Self, published by Hotpencil Press, is a collection written by 30 members of the trans and non-binary community to their younger selves.

Sabah Choudrey, who co-founded Trans Pride Brighton, told PinkNews: “I wrote my piece because I wanted to do something for my younger self. I have been working with trans young people for over 10 years and I don’t often get a chance to spend time with this trans person right here.

“I don’t know why I haven’t, I think I’ve never had the chance or have always overlooked myself because I’m surrounded by the narratives of trans young people and our stories, but actually sitting down with myself and a piece of paper gave me a real moment of fun, love and happiness that I hadn’t really experienced anywhere else.

‘It was nice to find moments of fun, goofiness, joy and hope’

“It was a really nice chance to connect with myself and validate those feelings because I knew when I was younger that I felt like a boy and that feeling didn’t go away, it was turned down as I grew older and navigated the rest of the world.

“It was nice to be able to connect with my younger trans self and find so many different moments of fun, goofiness, joy and hope.”

Eva Echo decided to contribute to the book in the face of the current anti-trans rhetoric around the world.

“With all that’s going on politically, and constantly reacting to negativity, I felt it was important for me to remind myself of my own journey,” the activist and public speaker said.

A YouGov poll, published in February, revealed a stark increase in anti-trans sentiment in the UK, while in the US, in April, The Normal Anomaly Initiative charity warned that legislation aimed at the community had become more extreme.

“Growing up, I never really had a supportive or loving family to guide me, which led to so much uncertainty and lack of confidence in who I was,” Eva went on to say. “And that’s before acknowledging I was queer.

“I wanted to tell my younger self that it’s not so much what we do, but that we just do it. Let go and feel life, not just following unwritten rules that are imposed on us or getting bogged down with finding answers to questions, which only lead to more questions.

“I found writing this letter cathartic and it helped to ground me in the here and now. No matter what happens, no matter what politicians decide, I am living and I am thriving.”

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