Sara-Jane Cromwell - No Ordinary Life

2021, English, Interview, Sara-Jane Cromwell,

Full title: "No Ordinary Life" by Sara-Jane Cromwell. 

"No Ordinary Life is a book that will make you cry, then laugh, then cry and laugh again. People who have read Sara-Jane's story are astounded by the imaginative ways she found to survive, overcome and thrive through the kinds of challenges that would have floored many others; and yet there is not a hint of her feeling like a victim. And even when she was at her lowest and most hopeless, she still found ways to get back up and start again."

"Sara-Jane has been described as one of Ireland's best kept secrets. This is because very few people know of her work over the past decade and a half (and continues today), and how she has brought about a positive change in people's understanding and attitudes towards transgender issues and gender dysphoria in particular. If you are looking for a story to inspire you through these challenging times, then No Ordinary Life is that story."

I interviewed Sara-Jane Cromwell in 2023. I asked her about any transgender role models that she followed: "There was a very limited number, two or three at most, mostly non-Irish and for the most part very negative. There were others who appeared in the tabloid papers with their faces covered, their names changed and stories of how terrible their lives were. None of them really engaged nor left people informed on what it actually meant to be gender dysphoric and why securing our rights was so important.

And so the wider community was unable to understand or properly engage with them. I observed all they said and did, then did the exact opposite. And by doing so founded two organisations and opened many of the doors that helped bring us to where we are today, which is a much better place."

Sarah is a successful business owner, author, speaker, life coach, mentor, and workplace relations consultant. She was born as Thomas in Dublin in 1960 and was diagnosed with gender identity disorder at the age of 43. She then began her transition into her new identity as Sara-Jane. She has published three books about her life and on the subject of Gender Dysphoria and Gender Identity.

Her first autobiography, “Becoming Myself”, published in 2008, made it onto the bestsellers list. It tells the story of her growing up in Dublin in the 1960s to her moving to Cork in 1998, where she received her diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria. Her second book, “Wrong Body Wrong Life” (2010), addresses the subject of Gender Dysphoria and describes the living experience of gender dysphoric people in Ireland. Her most recent book, “No Ordinary Life”, is an update of “Becoming Myself” since completing her transition in 2015.

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Photo via Heroines of My Life.