“If you want to come out, then do it, but make sure you do it where people are accepting, because you don’t know what people are going to say, and words really do hurt. But if you don’t feel right in your own body, follow your heart, and your gut.” Says Corey Maison. From Mission’s Youth issue.
In September 2015, a video of a 14-year-old transgender girl being surprised with her first hormone treatment went internationally viral. The palpably joyous film shed light on the intimate moments of the trans experience that are so often shielded from public view. Since then, members of the trans community have credited the video with encouraging them to come out, or with helping their previously unaccepting relatives to exhibit tolerance.
That young girl was Michigan-born Corey Maison, one of this generation’s brave and open trans activists. I called her on a July day, to interview her for this piece. As all 17-year-olds should be, she was at a party, and apologetically sought out a quiet place to talk. Maison’s voice is saccharine and enthusiastic, a rarity for a somewhat famous Gen Zer with a strong Instagram following (at the time of writing, Maison’s is 64,000). Unlike her peers, however, Maison has a following that is not due to celebrity connections or a Beverly Hills lifestyle, but her pioneering activism.
Despite her activist status, Maison was not always as abreast of transgender issues as she is today—unsurprising, considering how much society’s understanding of the complexities surrounding gender and sexuality has evolved throughout the past decade-she tells me. “I didn’t even know what the word was, I’d just always known that I was different. And I’ve always known that I wasn’t feeling myself in the body that I was in, that I was born with.”
Corey first realized she might be transgender when, at 9 or 10 years old, her mum showed her a video of transgender pioneer and YouTube sensation Jazz Jennings. “That was really when my eyes started to open and my ears were getting larger, so I could listen to what everyone had to say, and I had more of a visual on what [being transgender] was. And since then, I’ve been living my life, I’ve been living my best life.”
So acute was the revelation that, immediately after viewing the video, Maison came out to her parents. “Right after watching the video of Jazz Jennings, my parents said, ‘We’re going to the store, we’re going to change your whole wardrobe.’ And that’s exactly what we did. All new clothes. It was probably the best day ever, because my parents accepted me for me, and I could be who I wanted to be and who I am, without having a target on my back. I’m not saying there’s not a target on my back now, but that’s a big issue, your parents accepting you. It was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.”
The target that Maison refers to was at its most visible during high school, where she was relentlessly bullied, an experience that, to this day, she classes as the hardest part of her journey. “Getting bullied, especially during my school years, it was crazy, terrible.” Thankfully, Maison came out the other side by finding solace in the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou. “Every day when I got bullied, I would come home, and I would just listen to that. And I would tell myself, ‘One day I’m going to rise above them and I’m going to do better. I’m going to do good for the world.’”
The video of Maison’s mother surprising her with her hormone treatment enabled her to do just that. “Oh, it changed my life. It changed my life drastically – in ways that I could never have imagined!” Maison says of the clip’s reach. “Because of that video, I got to do things that I will probably never be able to do again. I got to meet new people that I am best friends with today because they are just so loving and accepting. Not only did it change my life, but it absolutely changed other people’s lives, it opened up parents’ eyes to support their kids. It even opened up kids’ eyes to identify how they want to identify.”
In 2017, a couple of years after the hype surrounding the video had died down, Maison made headlines once again when it was made public that her mother was transitioning into a man. The pair were henceforth identified by the press as the first transgender parent and child. The unusual nature of the situation does not seem to faze Maison. Instead, she’s grateful for an ally who can truly relate. “Going through all those years without my mom transitioning …I felt like I was myself, but on the other side, I kind of felt like I was alone. I felt like an outcast,” she says. “Until my mom came out and said, ‘You know what, I’m just like you, I’m trans’ …It opened up my eyes even wider. He knows what I’m going through at the end of the day, and I feel the same way about him. We both can sit down with each other and talk about how we feel, and relate on so many different levels, it’s absolutely amazing.”
When I ask Maison what advice she would give to anyone, young or old, who is coming to the realization that they may be trans, she is encouraging in that heartwarming, all-American, “always be yourself” kind of way, sans the naivety that’s usually part of the package. “Find someone who will support you. Start from there,” she advises. “Go for your heart, follow it. If you want to come out, then do it, but make sure you do it where people are accepting, because you don’t know what people are going to say, and words really do hurt. But if you don’t feel right in your own body, follow your heart, and your gut—don’t listen to what anyone has to say.”
She went on to explain the metaphor that, in her opinion, explicates the concept most succinctly. The analogy came to fruition when Maison and her friend Matt watched a video of a young man coming out to his mom, who did not accept him. “He [Matt] wrote to him and tried to talk to his mom. He was like, ‘If someone’s not fitting in their own body, you can’t force them to be in it. Say someone’s allergic to peanut butter, you’re not going to force them to eat peanut butter, right? So you can’t force someone to do something that they don’t feel.’”
Maison’s story is a powerful one, and this is just the start. She currently operates a YouTube channel that looks into myriad issues relating to herself and the wider trans community, and in the future, hopes to go into modeling, a world that is increasingly embracing transgender models and putting activism at its (previously problematic) core.
As for the future? “I’m definitely going to try to go to college, and then I want to pursue my dream, which is modeling, runway modeling.”
Images courtesy of Eric Mason
