Interview with Jenna Arriving1

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Jenna Arriving1, a video blogger that documents her transition on YouTube. Hello Jenna!

Jenna: Hello Monika. Just to say that Jenna is an alias I use online and it’s not my real name.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Jenna: Well, I am 38, single, and now living in London UK. I live full-time as a woman and started a medical transition in Oct 2011. I have been living full-time as a woman for one year. I initially transitioned as a teenager at age 16 and continued for 2 years until after my 18th birthday. Sadly I detransitioned due to ill health and other pressures. I restarted my transition at age 36.

Interview with Jessica Tiffany

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Jessica Tiffany, a young video blogger from Canada that documents her transition on YouTube. Hello Jessica!

Jessica: Hi Monika! Thanks for interviewing me for your site!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Jessica: I’m a 27-year-old transgirl, I started on hormones almost 2 years ago and I’ve been living full-time as a woman for over a year. I’m much happier now than I was before, I love being female.

Monika: Why did you decide to share your transition details on YouTube?
Jessica: I’d watched a few random transgender video blogs before I decided for sure that I was going to transition. I used to frequent /r/transgender and /r/asktransgender on Reddit quite often and at the time people were posting videos occasionally to show what they looked and sounded like.

Interview with Meggan Sommerville

Monika: Today’s interview is with Meggan Sommerville, an American transgender advocate, and activist, former frame shop manager, writer, a blogger from Oswego, Illinois. Meggan hit the headlines in 2011 when she filed a complaint to the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) after she had been denied to use the women's restroom at the workplace. Hello Meggan!

Meggan: Hi Monika. I am honored you chose to pick me to be included in this awesome group of people.

Monika: Your professional experience covers a wide range of jobs: a veterinary technician in the Western suburbs of Chicago, an EMT/Paramedic, EMS Instructor, and a paid on-call firefighter for Bolingbrook, Illinois. Which did you like most?

Meggan: Well, to be perfectly honest, I loved them all. They all had their own ups and downs, but I am very thankful for each one of those jobs. Each job allowed me to better myself, challenge myself, and stretched my abilities, and at the same time, I was able to do something that truly made a difference.

Interview with Michelle Hendley

Monika: Today I am meeting Michelle Hendley, an American young actress and video blogger that documents her transition on YouTube, known for her role as Ricky in the film Boy Meets Girl, directed by Eric Schaeffer. Hello Michelle!

Michelle: Hello Monika!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Michelle: Hmm, well I am 22 years old, I live in Missouri (USA) and I am a cosmetology student.

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

Michelle: When I first started my channel a couple years ago, I really didn’t know what I wanted to say on YouTube. For a while, I just made little updates about my life, and around that time I had my “gender realization.”

Interview with Louise Hannon

Monika: Today’s interview is with Louise Hannon, a transgender advocate, activist, photographer, and former business development manager from Arbour Hill, north Dublin in Ireland. She was the first transgender person in Ireland to take a case against her employer on gender discrimination grounds and win the case in 2011. It was possible thanks to the Irish Employment Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination in the workplace. Hello Louise!

Louise: Hello Monika!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Louise: I've been asked this kind of question before, but how do you describe yourself? Probably other people would describe me much better. I'm passionate about equality and justice where I see something which I feel is wrong. Be that economically or physically wrong in my eyes. I tend to confront injustice. I was very much the same all my life but it's only in recent times that I have been able financially and in my private life to have had the spare time to do what I do.

Interview with Lisa Olsson

Monika: Today’s interview is with Lisa Olsson, a transgender advocate, and activist, a photographer from Sweden. Hello Lisa!

Lisa: Hello Monika! I am happy to be interviewed by you.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Lisa: Well, it is hard to describe oneself in just a few words. I am a person that can not just sit idle and do nothing, there has to always be some activity. Preferable some activities that demand some intellectual focus. I am 35 years old and work as an unemployment agent. I still study at the university level, mostly for fun.

Monika: How did you start taking photos?

Lisa: I have always had a camera of some sort. For a long time, I thought about investing in an SLR camera so I could take better pictures. In the end, about three years ago I finally bought a simpler version. And upgraded to a far better one soon after that.