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Going through puberty can be tough.

Fighting through it twice is even tougher.

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For Naomi Hiebert, a transgender woman, that’s what it felt like.

And more.

“I started transitioning shortly after coming to the University of Calgary,” says Hiebert, a software engineering student. “To put it plainly, it’s going through puberty a second time. . . . as well as dealing with visibly being a member of a minority that a lot of people really don’t like.”

Hiebert is no stranger to bullying.

“I honestly had a very hard time through public school,” she says. “Because my gender expression was not typical, I wasn’t a proper boy that did boy things very well, as much as I sometimes tried . . . so I was an easy target.”

It wasn’t until later in high school that she became involved with the LGBTQ community and has become a supporter of transgender rights at the university.

“I think it’s very important for youth who may be transgender — or thinking of coming out or transitioning — to have this representation of adults who are just normal parts of the community who are transgender,” says Hiebert, “because we have a lot of representation of celebrities and documentaries about children . . . but there is generally missing that representation of people who transitioned and got on with their life.