Interview with Kimberly Kennedy

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Kimberly Kennedy, an American transgender woman and social media influencer from San Francisco, California. Hello Kimberly! 

Kimberly: Hi there, I'm really surprised and honored that someone would want to interview me.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Kimberly: I am a 23-year-old transgender woman. I started my transition in my senior year of college. So it's been about 2 years so far.

Monika: Why did you decide to share your transition details on social media?

Kimberly: There are many reasons I have been sharing my story on Reddit. First I wanted to share my details on Reddit because I love the thriving communities that exist on the platform. In regards to why I wanted to share my personal story, I really think it's good for trans people, specifically the younger trans kids to see that life can be OK for a trans person in America. I think that many trans people my age were only exposed to the idea of a transgender through trashy daytime TV, like the Jerry Springer show or other things that were posed as more of a "freak show".

Interview with Nicola Nilla

Monika: Today I am meeting Nicola Nilla, an American YouTube vlogger. It has been almost 16 months since she launched her Nicola Nilla vlog where she shares her transition Story. Hello Nicola!

Nicola: Hi Monika! I can't believe it's already been 16 months since this all started.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Nicola: Yeah! I am a 27-year-old transwoman from San Francisco with a background in education. However, I like to dabble in a lot of different things like fashion styling, MUA, modeling, and photography. I like anything that allows me to express my true self!

Monika: Nicola is such a lovely name. How come you chose it?

Nicola: So it's kind of a funny story. My birth initials are NBL, and I wanted to keep those the same during the name change -- mostly out of simplicity but to also respect my parents. I already knew I wanted a unique "N" name when I was watching one of my favorite 2000s teen movies, Superbad. The side character, McLovin, spends half the movie obsessing over this girl he barely knows, Nicola. She really only represents that hot girl every guy wants to hook up with, and I thought that was badass so I took that name for myself haha! It's kind of a weird inspiration, but it stuck hehe.

Interview with Sherilyn Connelly

 

Sherilyn Connelly is a San Francisco-based transgender writer, film critic, and cultural commentator. She is the author of Malediction and Pee Play, an excerpt from her memoir Bottomfeeder, and her writing has been featured in the acclaimed anthology The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard (Topside Press). Sherilyn’s stories, including The Last Dog and Pony Show and Sherilyn’s Skool for Girlz, explore identity, emotion, and pop culture with incisive wit and deeply personal insight. In addition to her literary work, she writes about film and television for Medialoper and the Gawker Media blog io9, and serves as the head film critic for SF Weekly. Her critical writing has also appeared in The Village Voice.

 

A lifelong lover of libraries, she is pursuing a Master of Library and Information Science with the goal of becoming an archivist. Sherilyn began her gender transition at age 25 and has written candidly about her journey and the cultural challenges trans women face, both in media portrayals and real life. Fiercely independent and refreshingly self-aware, she describes her political action as simply being herself, “largely without compromise.” Sherilyn continues to write, critique, and archive, driven by curiosity, resilience, and a dry sense of humor she never leaves at home.

Interview with Gina Grahame

Growing up in suburban Detroit, Gina Grahame enjoyed an idyllic childhood, yet from an early age she carried feelings she could neither fully understand nor escape. As those feelings grew stronger, she eventually reached the point where she could no longer run from who she truly was. Transitioning in the pre-internet era meant searching libraries, travelling hundreds of miles for information and community, and often facing the journey with little support. Along the way, Gina experienced discrimination, professional challenges, painful reactions from loved ones, and some of the most difficult years of her life. Yet she never gave up. Today, she is a successful businesswoman, writer, motivational speaker, coach, and advocate for authenticity. In this interview, Gina speaks with remarkable honesty about transition, family, love, discrimination, transgender visibility, beauty, fashion, and the woman she has become. Her story is also a reminder that transition is not simply about changing one's appearance, but about discovering who we truly are and finding the courage to live accordingly. Therefore I am delighted to introduce Gina Grahame, a woman who has faced adversity, refused to be defeated by it, and continues to live life on her own terms.