When we think of a person, we don’t always think about how many different factors in their lives actually influence their identity. This can be their religion, their culture, their sexual and gender identity, and even the color of their skin. While this brings immeasurable, wonderful diversity to our world, intersectional identities can result in some people experiencing additional prejudice.

But this doesn’t stop people from being who they are. This is why I spoke to Fae: a witty, inspiring 15-year-old I had the recent pleasure of interviewing. She identifies as a genderfluid, pansexual female, and as a proud Muslim as well. Many consider these to be incompatible, but her confidence and the strong support of her mother shows this to hardly be the case.

“As many religions follow, being LGBTQIA is a sin, along transitioning over to another gender. People believe God wouldn't make a mistake, and if you were meant to be female you should stay female...”

But Fae doesn’t let this stand in the way of her identity. In fact, she has an excellent rebuttal:

“Yes, God makes no mistakes and so, me being a young, pansexual girl isn't a mistake. Me being a genderfluid 15-year-old is not a mistake. I am who I am, and I alone atone for my supposed sins.”

Despite this confidence, Fae has experienced ignorance and bigotry not just from those within her community, but also from those outside of it too.

“People wish to criticize me and say I‘m too young to know all of this - I’m too young to know what being pansexual is.

"But I’m not too young to know what I want for my entire future? I’m not too young to have my entire life planned out and know exactly what my future job is, and how many kids I want?”

The prejudice she has experienced has been intense and even threatening.

“It’s a daily struggle. Just a few days ago, I was yelled at by a few arrogant individuals who insulted me about being part of the LGBTQIA community.

“Being Muslim also has its own struggles. When I wore my hijab in the past I got punched and kicked, and one of the worst is when I almost got hit with a baseball bat. One time I got punched in my back and I had to go to the hospital, only to find out I had internal bruising.”

But even in the face of these horrible experiences, she hasn’t let it stand in her way.

“Yet, at the end of the day, no matter the struggles I will face in my life, it will never make me cower down in fear.”

On the topic of sexuality, gender, and religious incompatibility, I asked her if she thought Islam was generalized more as being anti-LGBTQIA compared to other religions. She said:

“Honestly speaking, I believe it is about how strict you are. Some Christians won't even think about LGBTQIA rights whereas my best friend, who is Christian, is pansexual herself.

“I have never met an LGBTQIA Muslim myself, but that doesn't mean they aren't out there. Muslims do support LGBTQIA rights, however, I have never met a member of the LGBTQIA community myself that has been Muslim.”

While religion, sexuality and gender identity can certainly conflict, we know that this doesn’t stop these communities from existing together. When asked what religious folk should do in order to be better acquainted and more open to the LGBTQIA community, Fae said:

“The LGBTQIA community is just starting to come into the light. For several of years it was something shunned, and in its own way, even today, it still is… even though it may be strange to some, those individuals need to understand we are all different. Love, to people, is just as different as someone's genetic strand is.”

While our identity is no doubt important to who we are, she suggested that we can get too wrapped up in our labels and that this can take away from being ourselves. Fae knows she isn’t just her identity.

“I am a figure skater, a writer, an artist, and a dreamer: I dream of the things unknown and unreachable to humans.

“After a severe onset of panic disorder, I got into figure skating. I danced for over 12 years of my life so it was kinda like the same thing, but on a thin pair of blades on ice. It was much more of a challenge for me, yet all at the same time it is how I cope with things: it was and still is my mental release.”

She is thinking of pursuing microbiology or psychology - perhaps inspired by her own experiences.

“I love thinking about how the human brain works; why we are the way we are. Why when we are angry we humans have the tendency to yell and to say things we would never say. What in our brains triggers that sort of reaction, why is it a reaction, and why isn't the only reaction to hearing hurtful things or dealing with annoyance is being calm and understanding...”

I think we all have a lot to learn from Fae, and that’s more than being open-minded and analytical: it’s having the ambition and courage to not let others define us. To know our world contains young people like her is inspirational, for it keeps us standing strong in a time of prejudice against our unique identities. She knows and has experienced the difficulty of trying to be herself in a world that still insists on telling us who we should or shouldn’t be.

But Fae knows who she is. We should be more like Fae.