About This Picture:

"I never posed nude until this year, and this is one of the first pictures that was taken.  That's pretty strange, I guess, considering I had sex reassignment surgery over 14 years ago!  But, during that time, though I looked good, I still had a lot of emotional issues still to deal with.  Not too surprising for someone who spent her first 38 years as a male, was married for decades, and sired two children (who are now in their mid-twenties).

You see, even though on the outside you look fully female, and even though you act and talk as a woman, and know for a fact that your brain and mind are female, you don't realize that you are still playing a part just as much as you did when you lived as a male.

It takes many years to have enough faith in the truth of who you are to drop all the pretense and just be yourself.  What I mean by that is that you don't think about how you are standing or moving or acting, you're just being yourself.  Hard to do because you worked so hard to fit into this new role.  So to just let go and be... well, that's a scary thing.

But then, when you take that step, and you find that everyone accepts you as totally natural, even with all your guards down, well, suddenly you come to finally accept yourself, even though everyone else has accepted you already for years.  And for me, that's when I finally decided I wanted to celebrate the end of my journey, having completed not only the physical transformation, but a spiritual transcendence as well.  For me, then, the best way to express my feelings was to stand up without cover, without shield, without context or distraction, and to reveal myself as I am.

And so, I began a series of photo sessions of me - not my clothes or makeup or career or accomplishments - just as myself: the woman you see before you.

I like this picture in particular because of the lighting.  I like the way the light from the window enhances the curves.  When I see this picture, it reminds me of some of those classic graceful photographs I used to see in Playboy when I was a boy, dreaming of being the girl in the centerfold.  Now I am that girl."

~~Melanie Anne

Melanie is a prolific author, musician, composer,
teacher, theorist, and successful businesswoman.

She is also the founder of the first Transgender Forum on America Online
and the creator of the world's very first Transgender Support Web Site.

Visit Melanie's Home Page

The world's very first Transgender Support Web site

Melanie's web site has received over three million visits since 1994
and currently receives more than 1,500 unique visitors per day

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