I am 21 years-old and I am a transgender male. What that means is that I do not identify with the gender I was given at birth. I was born female and I identify as male. In today's society being transgender is almost becoming a "trend" to say the least. Ever since Caitlyn Jenner came out publicly as a transgender woman, started hormone treatment, had surgeries to make her more presentably female, and documented her transition and life on her TV show "I Am Cait," we have seen an increasing amount of children, young adults, and adults coming out as transgender. Now, in my opinion, this is a great step in the right direction of society accepting us and people having the courage and confidence to come out and to show who they truly are because someone, who is a huge national icon and an influential name, had the confidence to do so. Do not get me wrong, as much as I support Jenner and her confidence and courage to finally be who she is, I do not view her as the face of the transgender community. Let me explain why.

The transgender community is filled with not only celebrities like Jenner but with people like me who are average. Transitioning is pricey, and can be very mentally, and emotionally damaging. Jenner is very wealthy and was able to afford transitioning right away. Many people in the transgender community do not have the funds to do so and some resent Jenner for it. I know people that have been waiting years to scrape together the money for surgery and hormone treatment; myself, I have been saving for almost two years and am not even close to my goal.

However, as I said previously, Jenner coming out ended up paving a road of courage and confidence among other transgender people allowing them to finally be themselves. That being said, the people that came out after Jenner and had said that they are transgender are at times being labeled (mainly by people in the trans community) as being a "trans-trender". Being trans-trender is defined as someone who is transitioning because it is trendy or is in right now. That being said, I must say this...being transgender has never been trendy or the "thing to be right now." People like myself have been around for centuries, for example, Lili Elbe was a Danish transgender woman and became one of the first identifiable recipients to have sex reassignment surgery. I say first identifiable because I can guarantee there are more, she, however, is the first we know about. There was even recently a movie made about her life called the "Danish Girl" starring Eddie Redmayne. So we have been around for so long, and have been fighting to be seen as nothing more than human for years; now that we are finally being seen as human and not freaks, society is trying to put us back to where we came from.

We live in a nation that is ruled by societal gender norms — a nation that is strictly pink and blue. There is no in-between, there is no purple area, and if there is, it is hated, mistreated and judged by so many that we wish at times to go back to being invisible. Being transgender in a society like this is emotionally, mentally, and even physically damaging. Transgender individuals face the highest rate of suicide attempts and success, ranging about 41% whereas the general public is 4.6%. We have a higher risk for anxiety, depression, self-harm with lethal intent, and overall our mental health is worse than that of the general public. Why is that, you may ask...and the only answer I can seemingly give you that may help one who is not transgender to understand is this: transgender individuals are treated so horribly, they are disowned by their families, mistreated by doctors and people whose job it is to care for others, they are denied jobs, housing. We are sexually assaulted, beat up, murdered, made fun of, turned into a joke tortured for being who we are...it is no wonder that we feel as if we do not belong. We have had laws passed against us that deny us to use the bathrooms of the gender we identify as.

What many people do not understand is that living in a society that is strictly pink and blue, is not only hard for many people who are not transgender who want to live outside of the gender-norms, but it is life threatening for those who are transgender.

So, again I must say this...being transgender is not a trend, it is not "the thing to be right now." It is hard, it is scary, it is tiring, it is painful, and most definitely it is not fun.

However, that being said...society, we exist and there is a great deal of purple inside your pink and blue world.