"I feel like I am ready to do something different that I didn’t get to do last year"

One of AMERICAN IDOL’s most memorable boys is now a girl.

Josh “JDA” Davila was among the show’s first out and proud contestants back in season 12, making it all the way to the semi-finals in Las Vegas.

Since then, Josh has become Jaidah Christina, found a new love and landed a dream singing job at Chicago’s biggest Trans-friendly nightclub.

“I am not just crossdressing anymore,” she tells me. “I am not this gay, feminine boy. I am actually now on hormone replacement therapy. I have been for a year and a half.”

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“I don’t even recognize the person that I used to be on IDOL.”

Jaidah tells me she began the transition to womanhood in August 2013 and has been injecting herself twice a week ever since.

“Because I was born a boy, my genes and my body naturally creates testosterone,” she says. “So I need to put a stop to that. If this is something I want to do, then hormone replacement therapy is something I have to do for the rest of my life.”

The talented singer — who celebrated her 30th birthday on New Year’s Day — shared more about her musical aspirations and life-changing transition in an exclusive interview with TheTVPage.com.

Q: Aren’t there surgical procedures that can make you more womanly overnight?

JD: If I had all the money in the world, I would definitely consider certain expensive surgeries that are available to us Trans women who want to feminize ourselves a little more. But when I look in the mirror, I see someone very, very feminine already. I translate well to a woman. I haven’t had any cosmetic procedures whatsoever.

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I am good where I am at right now. Yes, I do get insecure. And yes, I do think about wanting to make an appointment with a cosmetic surgeon. But it is not going to happen unless I win the lottery. So it is not something I chose to focus on because it is not available to me right now.

But isn’t all the hormone treatment very expensive?

Actually it’s not. For a while, the government was paying for it. But then they put a halt to that. I just paid for my first hormones that are going to last me for four months without the government helping me. But that is okay because I have a job and I can afford it.

You finally came out to your mom as being a Trans woman a few months ago. How did she not know what was going on?

She knew that I was cross dressing and wearing makeup and heels and being this very feminine person. She didn’t know that I was injecting myself two times a week. She didn’t know that I was altering my DNA, my biological make up. She just thought that I was cross dressing and being happy. So I had to hide a little bit from her. I told everyone but her and that suddenly hit me that that wasn’t fair for her to be left out.

Was everyone in your family on board with the transition?

I have a gay uncle, who I am not going to name. When he started seeing on my Facebook that I was wanting to be called “her” and “she” instead of “him,” he stopped hitting me up and that really hurt my feelings.

Has the transition helped you meet any guys?

I have someone very special in my life. The person I am with currently, who I hold very close to my heart, respects me and loves me. When he found out about my whole AMERICAN IDOL adventure, I was devastated. I met him as a woman, but he didn’t know anything about my past. It was hot and heavy when he and I met and continued for a while like that. So when he found out about that I was very devastated. But it’s a year later and we are still seeing each other.

What was life like for you after AMERICAN IDOL?

After IDOL I had to come back to selling cosmetics and living my androgynous life and accepting the fact that I had just been on national television. There was all this love but then it quickly started fading away. I started focusing on my transition and I lost focus on my music. So things didn’t work out for me the way I probably dreamed that I wanted it to. Which is why — even though I know I am still very special and I have that small exposure on television under my belt — I still feel a little mediocre now with that passing and me not being relevant and not doing anything about it.

Do you think your appearance or sexuality hurt you on IDOL?

I don’t think so. I think they knew that I was a force to be reckoned with, but were so fixated and stuck on the fact that they wanted a female Idol. They knew that from the beginning and we all gossiped about that.

Would you ever consider going on a different talent show?

No. I don’t think I would want to audition again. I kind of just want to focus on my transition. Sometimes these things work out for people and sometimes they don’t. In my case, it didn’t. I just don’t have the dedication and the patience to focus on that. Instead I would rather channel that and focus it on myself individually.

Will you watch the new season of IDOL?

No. I was totally anti-IDOL after I was on it. I was traumatized psychologically by being on TV and having something in the palm of my hands and then having it taken away. That really messed me up for a while.

It’s crazy because even though I put a halt to it and I am very underground, I am practicing my craft still every weekend working at a night club singing for a very, very small audience. I feel like even though I am not this very big person, I am still getting to do what I love to do. Now, I feel like I am ready to do something different that I didn’t get to do last year.