Transgender teen opens up about gender reassignment

18-year-old Katherine Boone is finally living the life she feels destined for. Katherine, who was assigned male at birth, recently recovered from gender reassignment surgery.

Katherine struggled to find the right words and the right approach when it came to telling her mom about her thoughts and feelings. Katherine said it took forever to build up the courage and confidence to even hint at it with her mom. She told her mom that she knew something didn't feel right, but it was a "guessing game" from there, with her mom trying to read her mind and understand her insecurities.

Eventually, Katherine's mom asked, "Do you want to be a girl?" and Katherine muffled out, "Yes."

As a young child, Katherine knew something was off about herself. One day, she was on the Internet when she came across a Wikipedia page that discussed transgenders. Katherine remembers being terrified because she didn't know what being transgender really meant.

When it came time to approach the gender reassignment surgery, Katherine asked herself "What if everything goes wrong?"

Katherine officially underwent gender reassignment surgery in April 2015, and she admitted that it was "mind-blowingly difficult to do."

Her mother talked about having pictures of Katherine as a child around the house. "I had to take them down. "She just feels like it wasn't her," her mom said. "But then you start replacing your memories. When I think back, I think 'she, she, she.'"

Katherine's brother, Alec, was in "horror shock," Katherine said. He didn't know how to react to the change, but he admits that although he felt like he was "losing his brother," he also "felt it coming."

Before the surgery, Katherine didn't even want to look down at herself in the shower, disgusted by her then-male body parts, but after the surgery, everything changed. Once the gauze and packing was removed, she looked in the mirror and finally felt normal, calling this post-surgery moment an '"instantaneous thank you."

Katherine lovingly remembers the first time her younger brother Alec used her female name and a female pronoun. "He was on Xbox Live with his friends," she said. He finally referred to her as his sister, Kat.

"It's like the new me," Katherine said. %shareLinks-quote="I finally feel like myself, so it kind of in a sense, is a re-birthday...like a renaissance." type="quote" author="Katherine Boone" authordesc=""%

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