Korean Schuyler Bailar was born a woman but has since removed her boobs and has transformed into a man. He was on Ellen DeGeneres show this week to talk about his experience.
Bailar, says he felt confused and isolated growing up in Virginia and attending Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., where he had mostly male friends and was generally considered “one of the guys.” Like Caitlyn Jenner – who won a gold medal as a decathlete – he poured his energies into sports and school.
“I didn’t understand why I spent my entire childhood being a boy but not really, one
who focused intently on studies and swimming to distract from anything that came up in my mind,” Bailar told the Post. “I was caught between two worlds.
Born physically as a girl but always feeling psychologically like a boy, Bailar dreamed of growing up to be a dad, never a mom. He dressed like a boy, acted like a boy, hung out with boys — except during a period in high school when he tried to fit in as a girl. It only made him more desperate.
Now 19, Bailar, grew up in McLean, Va., fighting bouts of depression, self-harm, suicidal thoughts and eating disorders, but he wants to send a message to young people that it doesn’t have to be that way. He rejects the glorification of suffering, saying, “You don’t have to have all this pain to be successful or to be who you are.”
After graduating from the private Georgetown Day School in the District, Bailar was scheduled to start as a freshman at Harvard in fall 2014. But he took a gap year to to get eating disorder treatment. During this time, he finally came to terms with his identity and how he wants to spend the rest of his life. He knows he wants to live as “normal” a life as possible given his circumstances, but he also wants to help other young people who feel as if they don’t belong in the body they got at birth. So, he said, if it means being public, that’s what he’ll do.
“I don’t want to always be known first as ‘that kid,’ or ‘the transgender swimmer,’ but I do want to do what I can to help other young people struggling with this,” he said.
Bailar’s story is likely to be more relatable to many young people than that of the 65-year-old Caitlyn Jenner, whose very public transition helped propel the conversation about sex and gender into the mainstream. In an effort to help others understand the process of transition, Bailar has been open, with blog posts and pictures on the Internet. One college swim coach already has reached out to Bailar, asking if he would talk to a swimmer with body dysmorphia.
He also shares photos of procedures he goes through in his journey to be a man on his IG page.
See more photos below:
Comments