Body Positive Trans Vlogger Shares Empowering Story of Self-Acceptance
Social media can be a cruel place where hate and bullying live. Or it can be a source of community and hope, as long as people like Gia Narvaez are posting. On Monday, the 26-year-old transgender YouTube vlogger from Los Angeles took to Instagram to celebrate being on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for 20 months. She shared some powerfully uplifting words dedicated to her formerly doubtful self.
“To the nights I would tell myself, no,” she began the post, which shows photos of herself before her transition and now. “To those moments where I felt like giving everything up because I did not think I was strong enough to push through. It is because of those moments, those nights, and those realizations that I can stand here today and proudly acknowledge my identity as a transgender, woman of color.”
She also addressed others going through similar struggles. “Whatever obstacles you are going through, I promise you, you will see a brighter day,” she wrote. “You have to push through those tough times, remind yourself everyday that you’re a strong person and that you can make it, and I promise you, you will.”
Narvaez, who posts to Youtube and Instagram as the Sassy Truth, said she doesn’t always give updates on her hormone therapy, but she wanted to “put some goodness out there.”
“There were times when I looked at myself and thought, ‘I’m never going to be able to transition,'” she tell Yahoo Beauty. “I wish that back then I had someone that I’d look to and think, ‘That can be me.'”
As a young adult, Narvaez worried about finding job stability and happiness if she transitioned. Part of her master’s thesis examined how transgender women turn to sex work for lack of employment opportunities.
“I thought, ‘I have to be realistic and look at these kind of things,’ ” Narvaez says. Fortunately, she has found a supportive work environment at a natural homeopathy company.
The 20-month HRT marker was significant for Narvaez because of the changes it has meant for her body. “When you start off on hormones, they tell you that you’re going to see the more drastic changes toward the end of two years,” she explains. “If I look at my body from back then until now, I think my body is certainly different. It’s shaped differently now. … I’ve had a lot of breast growth.”
While going through this change, Narvaez didn’t find support on social media only from other trans bloggers, but also from the body positivity community, which she was introduced to by her friend and fellow Youtube vlogger xBrittney89. “Being transgender, I have to start loving my body,” she says.
Now that she is feeling that love, she hopes others can too.
“I have had some trans youth message me, and they’re kind of in that spot where I was about 20 months ago,” she says. “I try to be positive and let them know that there’s always going to be a way. I wish I could have told myself that there’s a way.”
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