Write Your Own Trans Narrative by Birch Rosen

Write-Your-Own Trans Narrative

[Author’s note: This piece was written in the style of a fill-in-the-blanks word game, and in the spirit of such games, I invited people with no knowledge of what I had written to suggest phrases that fit a category or part of speech. The phrases included in the dropdown menus are theirs, edited lightly for syntax, conventions, and appropriateness. Thank you to Willow Vaughan, Rowan Allen Case, Joan Chao, Jay N, Lou Darling, sasha levin, Henry Inman, Alexander Sweetman, nico, and Tony R for your contributions.]

From a age, I knew I had been in the body. I always preferred to play with and instead of . Grown-ups always called me because I liked to wear and most of my friends were . I hated when my tried to make me wear for . One time I refused to come out of my room until let me wear instead.

I didn’t want anyone to notice when my started to develop, so I wore every day. I started stuffing my with . My was worried for me but otherwise supportive, but my called me and said I would never be a real .

When I was , I went away to and realized I was to transgender. I my and realized I would eventually need . I got a second job as and saved up as much as I could. It took years, but with hard work and , I did it. Now, finally, my is complete.

Birch Rosen (they/them) is a trans nonbinary writer living in the Seattle area on the unceded land of Coast Salish peoples. Their work has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, just femme & dandy, and Bellevue Literary Review. They are the 2022 winner of the King County Library System Rhyme On poetry contest.