Interview with Grishno

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Grishno, an American video blogger that documents her transition on YouTube. Hello Grishno!

Grishno: Hi Monika. Glad to be here.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Grishno: Sure. My name is Erin Armstrong, but many people know me as Grishno online. I was assigned male at birth, but transitioned from male to female when I was 20. It was not an easy choice to make at the time, and it has cost me a lot, including my relationship with parts of my family, but looking back now, almost 10 years later, I wouldn’t change a thing.

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

Grishno: I first started doing video blogs on YouTube in 2006, only a year or two after the site started. At the time I was living in NYC, where it is really hard to meet new people. I had friends, sure, but none of them were Trans*, and I felt like I was missing that in my life. I decided to make my first video as a way of reaching out to other people like me, and wouldn’t you know it… we’re everywhere.

Interview with Ashley Jones

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Ashley Jones, an American video blogger that documents her transition on YouTube. Hello Ashley!

Ashley: Hello and thanks for having me!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Ashley: Sure thing! I am 23 years old, half Russian and half Ukrainian. My hobbies include: mixing/producing EDM music, playing guitar, doing yoga, and running. I’m a “gamer girl” I mostly play RPG’s, MMO’s, Sci-Fi and Fantasy games. I also love me some anime!! Top 3 would be: Cowboy Bebop, FLCL and Samurai Champloo.

I have been on hormones for 1 year and I would like to try to reach out to the LGBT community and help in any way I can! I have been through a lot of pain in the time I've spent transitioning and I would like to help others get through it all and be proud of who they are. The transgender community has a 41% suicide rate and I think that enough is enough!! If I can help just 1% of that 41% than I will be happy.

Interview with Erica Elizabeth Ravenwood

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

Erica: Hi Monika. Thank you so much for asking me to do this. I’m just a little fish in a big sea really.

I do have to correct the term video blogger though. That would suggest I actually talk to the camera, which really isn’t my style of video. Rather, I use music and images to help me tell my story.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself? 

rica: Few words LOL. You don’t know me very well Monika. I’ll try to keep it pretty basic. I was born in 1965. A difficult period to grow up transgender since the information and resources didn’t exist back then like they do today. But growing up in the 70’s was also a magical time. I was 12 years old when Star Wars came out, for crying out loud. What better era was there to be a kid?

That being said, as many transgender girls do, I grew up without friends, I’ll go into that more in a later question.

I hid, buried, denied all that I could as I got older so that by the time I met my future wife I had a pretty decent alter persona going that at least allowed me to pass as male. I found the strong silent type the easiest to pull off. If I said little I would have less of a chance of giving my true thoughts away.

Interview with Mayra Viamonte

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Mayra Viamonte, a young Brazilian video blogger that documents her transition on YouTube. Hello Mayra!

Mayra: Hello, Monika. Interesting proposition, to list trans personalities as possibility models. Glad to be one of them.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Mayra: More than a few, like ‘narcissistic’ and ‘gorgeous’. Jokes aside, I’m a lesbian trans, which confuses a lot of people. I’m a professional translator, working from my home PC, and I’m engaged to a ciswoman that is wonderful in many ways.

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

Mayra: Actually, the YouTube profile is just a part of my personal blog. Both, however, are a twofold tool. Through them I aim to inspire other trans people, and educate everyone else about us.

Monika: At which stage of the transition are you right now?

Mayra: At “mission complete”. I’ve done a Facial Surgery and Breast Implant, I have no desire for the SRS, and my social life is fully feminine. Documents aren’t changed, but I also don’t plan them to be.

Interview with Cherise Witehira

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Cherise Witehira, an inspirational transgender activist from New Zealand, Butcher’s Apprentice, Hairdresser, Academic, Sex Worker, Public Servant and former President of Agender New Zealand, a leading advocacy organization for the trans community in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Hello Cherise!

Cherise: Kia ora my sis!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Cherise: Trigger alert, blunt, offensively honest etc…

Monika: For many years you have been dealing with transgender advocacy. What are the current challenges for transgender people In New Zealand?

Cherise: Please forgive me for the long-winded response to this question. To be honest Monika, there are many challenges faced by the Trans community here in Aotearoa, NZ. The five main issues I see currently affecting the community in NZ are Housing, Healthcare, Education, Employment and Poverty.

These issues have been evident for many years and successive governments have chosen to ignore them as they “are not a priority”. This is quite sad really as there are many within the community who require the support but for various reasons, cannot seem to access the services that are required in order for the person to become, for want of a better term, valuable, contributing members of society.

Interview with Ianna Book

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Ianna Book, an inspirational photographer from Canada, author of Trans Avenue, a series of photographic self-portraits taken in Montréal and New York from 2011 to 2013. Hello Ianna!

Ianna: Hi Monika!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Ianna: Of course! I was born in Lévis, a small town in Québec, Canada. My parents divorced early and I lived with my brother and my single mom in a difficult economic situation. From a young age, I’ve always felt perturbed and was always asking myself many questions.
Puberty is when I started to feel a need to express my femininity. I isolated myself to live out that reality because I was scared. At the beginning of adulthood, I moved to Montréal to study visual arts.
After many many years of denial and hesitation, I started, four years ago, to move forward with the process of my transition and gender adjustment (mtf). It was very difficult at first but necessary. In 2013, I published Trans Avenue, a collection of photographs tracing a part of this period of change.

Interview with Vicki Estrada

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Vicki Estrada, a landscape architect, urban planner, civic visionary, the President of Estrada Land Planning, a landscape architecture firm from San Diego. Hello Vicki!

Vicki: Hello Monika. I am quite honored that I am one you chose to interview. By the way, thank you for all you do for our community throughout the world.

Monika: Could you say a few words about your professional career so far?
Vicki: Well, I have owned my own design firm now for 29 years, almost half of my 61 years. I currently have 8 employees. Growing up I wanted to be an architect but realized while in architecture school that what makes a city great is not an iconic building here or tower there. It is what happens between buildings, how the buildings are arranged, that makes cities great. This is what landscape architects do.
There is misunderstanding by most that because the word "landscape architect" has the work "landscape" in it, that we are "fancy" gardeners. It is much more far reaching than that. I heard a story once by a famous landscape architect that if you imagine the earth as a canvas, architects put dots on the map, engineers connect the dots but landscape architects are the only ones that can literally paint the entire canvas.
I never forgot that story and have never regretted my decision to change from being an architect to being a landscape architect. We seem to be much more open and able to think on a larger scale.