But I am a girl with a keen interest in having it all, and what follows are hopeful dispatches from the frontlines of that struggle.

The thing that's so hard about being a kid is you don't have enough knowledge to explain things yourself.

Survivors are so often re-victimized by a system that demands they prove their purity and innocence.

I have been envious of male characteristics, if not the men themselves. I'm jealous of the ease with which they seem to inhabit their professional pursuits: the lack of apologizing, of bending over backward to make sure the people around them are comfortable with what they're trying to do. The fact that they are so often free of the people-pleasing instincts I have considered to be a curse of my female existence.

You can't give any exciting speech without misremembering things.

Barbie’s disfigured. It’s fine to play with her just as long as you keep that in mind.

It doesn't occur to so many people that if you don't have a clear heterosexual, gender confirming identity that there are parts of day-to-day life - like using a bathroom or getting your clothes - that just aren't going to be as easy.