Hi Everybody!

My name is Josie. Josie Anne Tyler. God it feels good to be able to finally speak that out in a public setting. I am a 33 year old woman in training who wanted to share her story in hopes that maybe somebody with a similar experience might read it and be encouraged or inspired by it. And yes. The technical term for me is transgender. But I prefer Woman In Training because it’s an awesome term!

First of all I was adopted. I went into foster care when I was 9 months old and was officially adopted at age 4. I have 3 amazing biological sisters. More on them later. Anyways I was adopted and that is where our story truly begins.

From the time I was a little kid I knew I was different. Other boys wanted to be outside playing in the dirt. Getting dirty. Playing with GI Joes. I preferred to be inside playing Barbies or dress up with my adoptive sister, who is two years older than me. Other little boys wanted Tonka trucks and fake tools I asked Santa every year for an easy bake oven.

I loved playing Pretty Pretty Princess and watching the Little Mermaid. As I got older I started watching girls around me going through puberty and I was excited that I was coming up to the age where those changes would happen to me. Only they didn’t.

I was so devastated, angry and hurt when my body didn’t go through the changes I thought it should. Despite people telling me I was a healthy and happy little boy I was tortured on the inside because I had always thought myself one of the girls. As I grew into a teenager I gradually accepted my fate and even began doing typically masculine things, like playing football and baseball but deep down those feminine desires were always there.

One day I was at the library at school and stumbled across The Transformation Story archive. A website were people can write stories about people undergoing transformations into all kinds of things, from gender swaps to dragons and vampires.

I was instantly hooked. I would spend hours in the library after school reading stories of teen/young adults boys being turned into beautiful women and for those moments in time I was able to live vicariously through the characters. I would imagine that I was lucky enough to have those changes happen to me. I finally wrote one of my own about me transforming into a 14 year old girl and thought I never published it on that website or anywhere it just felt so real.

When I was 18 I was on the internet trying to find ways to actually transform my body into a woman. I stumbled onto articles about HRT, SRS and sex changes. I was fascinated. Finally I had a way to actually bring my body into congruence with my mind. And then I read that at the time those procedures were only usually performed in countries like Thailand and my heart sank.

Fast forward to 2016. I have lived on my own out of my parents house for a few years now. I am living in a studio apartment in a converted hotel and I hate my life. I find a mobile home listed for sale Owner Finance and I can afford the down payment. Little did I know that that would have a big impact on this story.

I paid the down payment and moved in and the person who lived there previously had left behind a dresser. In that dresser we’re a bra, a blouse, and a pair of women’s jeans. Despite having never tried on women’s clothes before I was instantly drawn to them and was surprised to find them a near perfect fit. I stuffed the bra with socks. Jumped into the blouse and put the jeans on and hurriedly rushed to the mirror. For the first time in my life I felt that the reflection starting back at me was actually me.

I wore those close several times a week, for hours at a time. The only times I would take them off where if I had to go outside and could potentially be seen by neighbors or if I had to go to work or was having company.

But then my finances took a turn for the worse. I had to move out and move into a room for rent and didn’t take the clothes with me. A few months later I met the most amazing woman in the world and how I felt, my identity crises, was put on the back burner in place of new love.

Last year, about March of 2023, I started to feel immense regret for not having transitioned when I was 18 and I was really feeling out of place in my body. My wife was wondering why I was having intimacy issues and I couldn’t figure it out. And then one day we were having our intimate time and I allowed my mind to wonder. Suddenly I was a woman on her back. It was like I had teleported into her body and I felt everything she felt as if it was happening to me. Instantly it became the best I had ever had.

That was when I knew. I was in that moment that I decided I was not going to suppress my feelings anymore. And I was going to embrace the woman that I have always known that I am. I thought about names for myself.

My roommates in college had always jokingly called me Brandi. So I tried that on. That didn’t fit. Then I tried Josephine since my dead middle name was Joseph. I was gonna have people call me Josie for short but Josie just struck me as it. That was my true name. And Anne seemed like a natural middle name so from that moment in 2023 on to myself I was Josie Anne Tyler.

I began telling people starting with my wife and my youngest biological sister. My wife was sad and upset. My sister was supportive and kind and immediately embraced me as her little sister. My two older sisters have accepted me as their sister and both are awesome and encouraging in their own way but it’s my sister that’s immediately older than me being my only real Ally in this that has gotten me to where I am today.

Once I came out I started going to Goodwill. That women’s clothing section I had always been drawn to and this avoided like the plague I finally allowed myself to shop in. I picked out several outfits. I wasn’t able to be out and open at work but as soon as I get off work I would go to a public restroom change into my outfits, stuff my bra, and cruise around town as my true self for the first time in my life. Dress shopping at WalMart. Trying on Jewelry. Even braving a women’s restroom. It was as if I was finally free from a prison of my own making.

There have been trials and tribulations along the way. Most of the people I have come out to haven’t been supportive. I wound up getting fired from the job I had 5 days after coming out to them. My wife doesn’t want to live as a lesbian because she’s not one but she can’t understand that I don’t want to live as a man because I’m not one.

I had started HRT but somebody stole my backpack with my hormones in it. I don’t get a lot of chances to just kick back and be Josie. Most days I still have to pretend to be my old self. It’s exhausting.

But I know it will all be worth it in the end. I have found my true self and I am never letting her go. Life is a journey with many twists and turns but I would encourage anybody that even thinks that they may be trans or may be questioning their identity. Look inside yourself. Find out. Don’t leave part of your life unexplored and feel unfulfilled.

God loves you just as you are. He created you and he doesn’t make mistakes. He knew you would be this way long before you were in the womb. You will always have a friend and an ally here. If you need a shoulder to cry on or a friend to vent too I am your girl. If you need advice I will offer what I can. I am here to be a positive, encouraging presence and maybe make people’s lives a little better. Anyways I won’t take up anymore of your in time. Always remember to always seek your authentic self go after your dreams we only get one life we might as well live it to the fullest.

With love to everyone,

-Josie