Lola’s gender affirmation surgery

FYI 

Facial Feminization Surgery (FFS) is a set of reconstructive surgical procedures that refine typically "male" facial features to bring them closer in shape and size to typical "female" facial features. This is just one type of "Gender Affirming Surgeries" often undergone by trans people. 


Message: 

Hello, my name is Lola.
I am a 19 year old aboriginal transgender woman, living in Adelaide. I am a fashion stylist, creative director, business woman and art lover  with a love of social media, fashion and food. 

To begin to describe the complexities of gender dysphoria is one of the hardest things I have found to put into simple words.  Many times when friends and family have asked, I find myself babbling but not being able to create a sentence that ends in understanding the daily trauma. A few things I experience as a trans woman due to dysphoria are very small things , most people wouldn’t even think about in daily life. Things such as making sure my every move, action and speach is as feminine as possible to not attract unwanted attention and to make sure everyone I  talk to or even look at only sees me as a female. Feeling overwhelmingly self conscious about small facial expressions while simply walking through town or to the shops is something I deal with daily. Sometimes even seeing my reflection on a bad day can ruin the rest of my day and make me so self conscious I feel as if I’m being looked at in disgust and people just know that I’m transgender. There is almost never a day that I don’t feel even the slightest dysphoria, I find it making me change the way I talk to people, trying to not get noticed in public, or even take a nice photo with friends without feeling insecure. These are just some of the things I have dealt with due to gender dysphoria for years. But also don’t get me wrong I don’t hate myself or not feel pretty sometimes. I have also spent a lot of time appreciating the beauty I do have, and having this surgery doesn’t mean that I hate myself at all. 

Having this surgery to me is life changing. I don’t want this to purely enhance beauty, it is not cosmetic. This is something that would fundamentally change me as a person, as a woman, to feel free and my complete self. To be able to see myself whole as a female and not feel there is a distance between who I am and have always envisioned and what my natural puberty set features are which is how I feel currently. 

I have have been on  HRT (hormone replacement Therapy) for just over one year now, and it has definitely helped me feel more complete by giving me the feminine body I was always supposed to have, and softened some of my facial features. 
This surgery can offer me all the things that hormones can not provide like the ability to pass at a certain level where I can  be in public and not have to fear for my safety or feel like somehow my feature are “manly” causing my dysphoria. So that I can walk down the street without being harassed, dysphoric, stared at and perhaps even save my life one day, which for trans folks is a very real possibility.

I am choosing to take this next step in my transition to further myself as a person, to be able to socialise more easily and to get the most out of life without worrying about exclusion and judgement. To be able to walk through the world not seen purely as a trans woman but simply just a woman.

im so thankful to have so many supportive people in my life and who have encouraged me to make this campaign to move into the next step of my adult life and transition. Any
amount of donation you could make to help me is more than enough and I don’t even know how to thank you xx

if you can’t donate I completely understand all I ask is that you share my campaign and my story on any social media platform xx

thank you for caring and reading my story