Chaye Unfolding

Imagine a little girl trapped inside the body of a boy. This little girl has dreams of becoming a fashion model one day, but instead, life forces her to learn the art and craft of living as a male. She attends an all-boys boarding school, plays dominant male sports, and eventually crafts herself into the societal ideal of a young man.

This little girl is me, and for twenty-five years, she remained living her life in secret. Appearing in short bursts in the dark of night through a laptop screen or my imagination, her need for existence was my greatest shame and fear. Eventually, the pain of not sharing her with the world grew too intense, and regardless of how established my male life was, she needed to come out.

Chaye Unfolding is the story of my journey towards self-acceptance and self-love. It explores my search for identity as a female, the bewilderment I felt as a child by the worlds and environments around me, and my continual struggles to eventually discover who I am.