Interview with Faye Seidler

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Faye Seidler, an inspirational American transactivist, educator, and writer from Fargo, North Dakota.
Faye: Hi! :)
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Faye: I’m a trans activist, writer, and nerd with a strong belief in a better future. My work primarily focuses on my experiences, humor, and research, all of which seek to create positive change for the transgender community.
Monika: I saw your short story in The New York Times series titled “Transgender Today.” Why did you decide to come out to the general public?
Faye: I saw a serious lack of visibility in our community and that most people were getting their information about trans people from stereotypes they saw on television. I also saw a medical network that told trans people to blend in, deny, or hide their identity. I saw a tremendous amount of erasure for what it meant to be trans and the identity itself controlled and enforced as a stereotypical binary by the medical industry.

Interview with Jessica Harrington

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Jessica Harrington, an inspirational American woman from Reno, Nevada. Hello Jessica!
Jessica: Hi Monika. Thank you for having me. 
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Jessica: I am a 42-year-old trans woman. I have been in transition for almost 5 years and while it’s has been amazing being free, it’s also been the hardest time of my life.
Monika: At what age did you transition into a woman yourself? Was it a difficult process? 
Jessica: I started transition when I was 38. The process itself wasn’t that difficult. I did my research for years beforehand. I knew what I needed, who I needed to talk to, and about what everything would cost me.

Interview with Charlotte Flanigan

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Charlotte Flanigan, a British writer, and the author of the biographical book titled “The Whole Shenanigans: Charlotte's Story” (2017). Hello Charlotte!
Charlotte: Hello!
Monika: You were born in Germany? Could you say a few words about yourself?
Charlotte: Well, I wasn't as such born in Germany but went there from a young age and fell in love with the country and for some strange reason I found speaking the native tongue natural and was surprised by how comfortable it felt.
Monika: Your most visible hobby is tattooing… :)
Charlotte: Yes, tattoos are a big part of my life from a young age. I fell in love seeing the stories behind the tattoos people had got whilst young.

Interview with Ella Marques

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Ella Marques, a Portuguese-American writer living in Boca Raton, Florida, the author of the biographical book titled “I was born a boy, from Venus. It’s time to be yourself” (2017). Hello Ella!
Ella: Hi Monika, Thank you very much for the interview, and for thinking about me. I like your blog very much.
Monika: You describe yourself as an “international” woman. Could you say a few words about yourself?
Ella: Sure. I was born in Portugal, at the age of 14 I went to an international boarding school in Switzerland, and since then I have lived, worked, and visited many countries. I lived in London, Paris, Fortaleza, a city in the Northeast of Brazil. Lived over 30 years in various cities in Switzerland and moved to the USA 6 year ago.

Interview with Molly Cutpurse

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Molly Cutpurse, a British writer from Stratford in the East End of London, one of the most prolific writers for the Amazon audience. Her portrait, as a transgendered writer, is now hanging in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and is a part of the museum's permanent collection. Hello Molly! 

Molly: Hello to yourself!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself? When did you decide that writing will be your vocation?

Molly: I wrote my first novel in 1984 when I was thirty-two. It was an enormously lengthy piece of rubbish that eventually was rewritten several times and was finally published about 1996 as, Daffodils in Autumn. I wrote it because it was a novel that I wanted to read.

Interview with Ava

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Ava, a transgender woman with a strong social media presence via her Instagram, Reddit and YouTube pages. Hello Ava!

Ava: Hello Monika!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Ava: Of course! I work for Carnival Cruise Line as an entertainer; I travel the world, meet people from all around, and get paid to have fun. I’m also an insufferable nerd and gamer. When not working, I’m either gaming or finding a recipe to cook up to share with my family. I also run a YouTube channel for people who experience the phenomenon ‘autonomous sensory meridian response’, also known as ASMR.

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

Ava: It began as a place to reach out to people in similar situations to me, trying to gauge how the community thought my transition was going. I have few friends who are trans themselves, and so this became a window to the community in which I felt the validation I felt I needed at the time to help me along.