We are all storytellers. Whether to an audience, to friends or family, or just to ourselves, we shape and share our experiences through narrative, and for personal experiences and memories to truly breathe, grow and sustain beyond the present, we have to share them.

Telling stories is a medium found across all human history and cultures; histories, legacies, allegories, myths, and gossip are all forms of storytelling. We learn about how to be in the world through the stories we hear, we nurture those around us through the stories we tell, too.

No matter your storytelling style, whether you use your voice, body or typing fingers, or if you get super detailed, let the words flow through you, wander off on tangents, are visual and hand wavey, or tend to get your message across with GIFs or emoji, telling tales is a beautiful mode in which we can all express and share with one another. Expansive and diverse narratives and yarns about trans lives are so important, and trans people need to be front and centre in order to tell them.

As trans people, history can be quite a tricky thing to navigate, especially as our voices and stories have often been shared through non-written forms, or been suppressed or destroyed if written down at all. With this history in mind, it’s even more significant and powerful for us to tell our stories, share them with each other and keep our legacies alive, on our terms.

When we share together and listen to each other, we witness our trans lives in a way that no one can take away from us.

A way to reflect on this is to write down or tell a story of your own. This may be in a private journal or document, a blog or social media post, to a friend, family member, or inanimate object of your choice, or in another way altogether. Sometimes just the process of telling a story can make a big difference.

Let’s tell a story

Think about a story you’d like to tell. Storytelling isn’t just about the story itself, but the way in which you share and express it.

If you’re feeling into it, try to write or speak a short story about something that feels significant to you or is about you. This can be about gender, or gender affirmation, or something totally different – it's your story after all.

When you’re done, send it to someone, or maybe it’s just for you, the story is now yours.

If you’re not sure about what to write about, here are some ideas:

  • First time you felt gender euphoria

  • A time you made a trans friend

  • Your closest encounter to magic

  • A love poem to yourself

  • When a hope or dream you had for your trans future came true

  • When you got to stand by your principles or values and felt good

  • Meeting a hero of yours

Stories aren’t just about words

Remember, stories come in all shapes and sizes, your story might feel right as a poem, a comic, a drawing, a dance or sequence of movements, a recipe, or something altogether.

This trans community is so wonderful precisely because we are all so different, and beautiful in our difference.

What are some of the ways you could tell stories that feel right for you?