It's taken a long time for Cassata to fully come to terms with his gender identity, and especially his decision not to take testosterone as part of his transition. "When I was 16 years old I wanted nothing more than to go on testosterone and to pass as male and to fit into that stereotype," he said. "And luckily my parents were like, you cannot start hormones until you're 18. So I had two more years to think about it and I spent those two years thinking about it almost every day, like obsessing over it. And then I came to the decision that I don't need testosterone in order to be happy, and I don't need testosterone in order to be a man."