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Helping TransFeminine Youth

Discussion in 'Gender Identity and Expression' started by pinkclare, Nov 10, 2015.

  1. pinkclare

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    Hi all,

    I work at a non-profit organization that works on behalf of transgender children, youth, and their families. One thing I do there is run a chest binder exchange program. It's 100% donation-based and has been fairly successful (over 1,600 binders have been sent to youth in need since the project began in 2012), but we've always felt like we need to expand to have a parallel program for trans feminine youth.

    The problem is, try as we might, we've never been able to come up with something equally awesome! I'm hoping y'all can help me brainstorm potential ideas.

    For reference, here are the reasons chest binders work so well:
    • Right price range - at around $35-40 each, they are out of reach for many teens and low-income folks, but are affordable for adults living over the poverty line.
    • Fairly generic - after finding the right size, a binder will work for just about anyone, without regard to race, age, sexual orientation, etc
    • Long lasting and resuable - many people get top surgery while their binders still have some life left in them and can easily pass them off to others
    • A very common need - chest dysphoria is one of, if not the, most common shared experience of trans men and afab genderqueer/fluid folks

    So let me know what you think may work equally well to benefit young trans feminine people (approx. age 13-18)! If you are trans feminine yourself, what item(s) would be (or would have been) helpful to have in early transition? What item(s) might you be willing to donate to an organization with the purpose of helping young trans women?

    Thanks in advance for all your ideas!
     
  2. Eveline

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    Truthfully, the most important items that we need are simply clothes and also maybe makeup. It can be much harder for trans girls to buy gender appropriate clothes because of the stigma. Being able to try on clothes in a safe and accepting environment would be unbelievably helpful for trans girls early on in transitioning. Also giving makeup tutorials might be extremely helpful...

    Thank you so much for being there for transgender children. It means so much to me and I'm proud of you. (*hug*)
     
    #2 Eveline, Nov 10, 2015
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2015
  3. pinkclare

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    Thanks for your suggestions and your support!

    A safe clothing closet/exchange and empowering makeup workshops are two projects that are actually in the pipeline already for our local youth so I'm excited to hear your confirmation that these are needed and helpful!

    I just realized that maybe it wasn't clear in my original post is that the chest binder exchange program serves the entire country (U.S.) by accepting online and mail applicants and then sending them binders through the US Postal Service. That's why binders are so simple - with two measurements, I can all but guarantee that the binder I send will fit the youth, without having to actually meet them.

    Clothing and makeup, however, are both so much more complicated to do through - multiple body size differences for clothes, skin tone and coloring for makeup, individual style preferences for both. I'd love to hear suggestions on ways to make these work if anyone has any. Perhaps just sticking with a single very important clothing item that might be difficult to get, like bras or something else?
     
  4. Eveline

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    It's really a tough question. I wouldn't really consider bras especially hard to get as by the time a trans girl needs it she probably has been presenting as a girl for a while as it takes 6 months for breasts to start growing on HRT and she will just go with her mother into a shop and buy her first bra as most girls do. Pushup bras or breast forms are not really something that I would consider to be a necessity for school age girls (Or any trans woman really) as some girls have smaller breasts and it just feels really really wrong to me...

    I would say from all clothing, skirts are probably the most relevant clothing item to hand out in such a way. Because it is a gender specific piece of clothing that women most commonly wear it does help relieve dysphoria. It's also obviously something that can be donated later on as most clothes are. A second option is a very simple basic makeup kit for trans girls to practice applying makeup with. The problem with makeup is that it takes a long time to master using and you will mess up a lot when you just start experimenting, having a very basic makeup kit to just play with can be of huge help to those in the early stages of transitioning and I'm sure there are very cheap sets designed for young girls to experiment with. It is also a luxury that some aren't able to afford... I've looked on amazon and there are quite a few sets in the 35$ range...

    I am just at the stage of beginning to work towards presenting as a woman and I do know that makeup and getting my first piece of clothing are my first priorities and even though I am 34 it is still really intimidating to do so. On the other hand, it does mean that I have a more limited understanding of later needs but hopefully others will offer insight on such matters.

    I'm glad that you are working towards creating such workshops and clothing areas. It will be so helpful to those who come to you. I hope everything goes well. (*hug*)
     
    #4 Eveline, Nov 10, 2015
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2015