When I identified as a girl, back in high school, I was completely ashamed when I realized I had to wear plus sizes. I thought it reflected negatively on me and made me less of a person, because that’s what my mother taught me.

Once I started identifying as a man, I stopped being ashamed of wearing plus sizes, and when i found out that I was the proper size to shop in the big and tall section, I was PROUD, and told everyone I knew. I don’t pass as a man very well, so it was not as if anyone told me that being big and large and taking up space was good thing. It was so ingrained in me that being fat was only shameful if you were a woman that the moment I stopped seeing myself as one, I was no longer as ashamed of being fat. It was something I never even realized until I sat down and thought about it.