Interview with transgender YouTuber Airi: Don't be afraid, give up the initiative

Time goes around, the cold winter has arrived, this day Aili is wearing a white dress, long hair tied with a bow, stepping on high heels into the new land of women, gestures are still the illusion of a princess in the winter country.

Airie, who became a woman in 2017 after undergoing gender reassignment surgery, started her career as a YouTuber, sharing with a wide audience the various issues that transgender people have encountered, and in order to expand her influence, she also invested in entrepreneurship and used her earnings to fund more transgender people undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

The advocacy never stops, and Airie said she is working on two major initiatives to make Taiwan more LGBTQ+ inclusive , which is her ultimate goal.

Breaking the curse of reincarnation: I like myself, and there are people who like me

In the love at this moment, it exudes an aura of confidence in front of our eyes. She recounted that she had experienced emotions that made her afraid to connect with people.

"Most of my dating experience is that I met and had an affair with this guy, but as soon as the other party knew that I was a transgender girl, they would gradually distance themselves from contact and leave me. When this pattern happens repeatedly, do you think, do I really need to build relationships with others?"

The reincarnation of this relationship is like a curse, until she meets her current boyfriend.

"My current boyfriend, even after we had a relationship, still didn't know my true identity, until one day he was on a Little A spicy show, and he found that this person was a little familiar, and he thought to himself, isn't this my girlfriend?"

And even if the other party knows the path that Airi has walked, he is still unswerving. He loves her, because no matter what, in love is the girl he loves - this recognized fact makes Aili feel that what was once floating is finally caught solidly. The curse that she once thought would be unbreakable in this life has since turned into a blessing, which makes her believe even more that stories about transgender people need to be heard by more people.

However, being transgender still makes life in love more turbulent, "I think that after I changed sex, I continued to be attacked, which made me reflect, is it really that important to be a boy or a girl?"

Maybe she has more confidence in self-identity, and in the face of external doubts, Airi responded calmly, and she didn't ask others to agree with her, "I think I'm doing well now, I like myself, that's enough." 」

(Recommended reading: Have you ever been in a relationship full of criticism?Relationship psychology: Getting out of a vicious circle starts with liking yourself)

Growth is an iterative process: you can only do it and see how to make up for it

At the beginning of the interview, Airi talked about her greatest trait - the pursuit of growth, which can be seen from the way she has become the person she likes all the way and the way she leads the team after starting a business.

Airi laughed that this may be due to the influence of her mother, mother and daughter are both people who pay great attention to appearance and refinement, so she has shown her concern for beauty since she was a child, and also cultivated a rigorous attitude towards the pursuit of goals, and then in the management team, she always expects her partners to keep up with the pace and move towards her ideals.

As a self-confessed short-termist, Airi has her own theory, "I can't guarantee that I'll regret it, or that I'm going to make the right decision, I can only make up for it after I do it." She knows that sometimes there is never the right decision, and growth is to constantly iterate according to the status quo, and take the initiative to find ways to deal with difficulties when encountered.

In particular, it is very important to put yourself in the position of the initiative, Airi said, you must let others know why your voice is worth being heard, and only if you act first can everything happen next. Because for her, growth is not only about having the courage to welcome new things, but also about what she thinks in her heart, and she has to earn it by herself.

(Guess what: stop blaming yourself!Let the Satyr model accompany you to face imperfections and change your life from a "growth mindset")

Transgender Journey: On the road to self-discovery, everyone is actually very brave.

Knowing who you are, and loving yourself, it took a while for love to bloom today's splendor. When Airie first learned about transgender issues and gender reassignment surgery in high school, she was convinced that gender switching was what she was going to do in the future.

Why do you have to do it? Will you regret it if you don't do it? Yes. I remembered seeing a photo in an online club, which was a selfie of an uncle wearing women's clothes and hiding in a public toilet. Why are he hiding? Because he has children and a wife at home.

At that time, Airi thought to herself that if she listened to her parents, got married and had children first, and then considered being sexual, maybe one day, she would be like this uncle, even if she was close to people, she had to hide it. But she didn't want to just give up on being herself. So in 2017, she made the most important decision of her life - undergo gender reassignment surgery and become a woman.

Later, she started a Youtube channel to share her experience, and gradually received private messages from viewers asking whether she was suitable to become a girl, and whether she should have gender reassignment surgery.

In the face of these questions, which were also her self-debating, Airi instead invited netizens to reflect on whether there is a problem behind the motivation to become a woman?

"Are you escaping the pressure of being a soldier, carrying on a family lineage, or escaping the social stereotype of being a boy to support your family and earn money?" she made a list of escapes, inviting netizens to reorganize themselves and help them dig deeper into their motivations and expectations, assuming that these problems don't necessarily have to be surgically treated, then solve them in other ways.

In addition, Airi also shared 2 thoughts on evaluating whether to undergo gender reassignment surgery:

1. Don't undergo surgery for the sake of social female role dividends

2. Don't undergo surgery from unknown sources to save money

"Some people think that if I become a girl, there will be many people who like me, so I don't have to work, there will be many people who can support me, pursue me, and become happy in life, and want to get rid of the dark side of being a man. On the one hand, such an idea may come from societal stereotypes about women, and on the other hand, sex reassignment surgery is not about pleasing others or seeking superficial dividends, but rather a deep self-understanding and life-changing decision.

In addition, some people who want to save money and choose unapproved and untested surgeries may face consequences such as wound ulceration and amputation, and the risk far exceeds the amount of money they can save.

(Gaying in the same scene: The history of Taiwan you don't know: The first sex reassignment surgery in Taiwan's history, Xie Jianshun who changed from male to female)

Becoming the Wings of an Inclusive Society: Creating the "Big Base Project" and the "Star Making Project"

Since the legalization of gay marriage in Taiwan in 2019, the social atmosphere has improved, and the transgender community has made progress, but it still has its difficulties.

We asked, what kind of actions as a transgender person make you feel supported?

And how can the public contribute to the integration of transgender people into society? Airi shared two major projects she is promoting: the "Big Base Project" and the "Star Making Project".

• Big Base Program: Dedicated to increasing the social presence of transgender people and making more people have access to gender reassignment surgery by addressing the financial hardships of these individuals. This will not only help them renew their identity cards and find jobs in the future, but also further form a mutual aid network.
• Star Maker Project: It aims to increase the representation of transgender people in various fields, and to make transgender people's voices heard through successful cases and social achievements. She cites the example of participating in a transgender beauty pageant in Thailand, where the goal is to win the championship, and that person doesn't have to be her, but someone has to do it.

Just want to be plump, but also need capital betting forward. This is exactly the original intention of Airi's entrepreneurship, to help transgender people take root through the establishment of a stable business model and through revenue. Talking about this hope, if there is light in Aili's eyes, we think to ourselves that at this time, she may not only be an entrepreneur, but also a practitioner on the road of ideals.

(Read more: Zhang Weixuan's writing|When Jensen Huang said, "If I had to start my life all over again, I would never start a business", how difficult could it be?)

Take the initiative: we're braver than we think

At the end of the interview, we asked if there was anything in love that we would like to say to our readers.

You're braver than you think, so don't give up the initiative to run away from what you're afraid of.

Woolf said that empowering a person for himself is more important than anything else. For Airi, this is important and requires more effort than ordinary people.

"I'm already a man, and if I don't work hard to change in my life, then I won't have a chance. I can only do it through surgery or anything, anyway, I just want to get to that look, just let me go, no matter how many knives I get. She said lightly, but every word made people feel the strength of shouting along the way in order to become the person she wanted.

"Take control of your own agency and do your best to be what you want!" is what Airi tells us. So, what kind of effort are you willing to make for yourself?