It has been three years since I last spoke with Ella Marques, a Portuguese-American writer living in Boca Raton, Florida, and in that time her creative world has continued to expand with remarkable energy. Known for her deeply personal biographical book I Was Born a Boy from Venus. It’s Time to Be Yourself, Ella has since taken readers further along her journey with Coming Home to Venus, a powerful reflection on transition, change, and becoming whole, as well as Eva’s World, a vibrant work of fiction that blends lived experience with imagination. Beyond writing, Ella has become a visible and generous presence in the transgender community through Trans-Gurus, a platform she co-founded to support and connect trans people across the globe. Her story is one of courage, introspection, creativity, and an unwavering belief that transgender women are, quite simply, women who live, love, work, and dream like anyone else.
In Coming Home to Venus, Ella traces the path from dysphoria to gender reassignment surgery, exploring not only the medical and practical aspects of transition but also its emotional, psychological, and social dimensions. The book stands as both a personal testimony and a roadmap, speaking directly to transgender readers while inviting cisgender audiences to better understand the depth and complexity of a trans woman’s experience. Alongside this deeply reflective work, Ella embraced fiction with Eva’s World, a novel that blends travel, friendship, love, and identity, drawing from real places, real emotions, and lived experiences, while allowing imagination to take the lead. Now in her mid-sixties, Ella speaks with the confidence of experience and the curiosity of someone still deeply engaged with the world. Her journey is marked not by a single moment of transition, but by a lifelong commitment to authenticity, creativity, and connection. In this interview, we return to her story not only to reflect on how far she has come, but also to explore how living fully as oneself can unlock new beginnings at any stage of life.
