At only 18 years old, Maria Haaning became the youngest Dane ever to undergo gender reassignment surgery to fulfill her lifelong dream of living in the body she should have been born in. The road to the operation was long and twice cost Maria her life. But today she lives as the woman she has felt she is all her life.
In the book, Maria gives an honest insight into what it is like to live as a freak and be an outcast of her school class, her family, and the society around her. At the same time, Mary gives her recipe for how to get through such a hell of self-hatred, beatings, degradation, and loneliness. Maria vividly tells how she herself literally put down her old self and began a new life as a new person – a person she has gone through fire and water to be transformed into.
In 2013 I interviewed Maria and this is what she told me about the book: "The inspiration to write a book came very early. In the middle of my transition, it struck me that I would have liked for someone to have done it so young in Denmark before me so that I could get some guidance towards achieving my goal. So when I was done with my transition I started working on that because I didn't want anyone to go through what I went through myself with no advice or guidance from people in the same country.That is also why I shared my story and myself on national television. I have been featured in almost all Danish magazines, the most recent one is actually an article in Femina where they name the 100 most inspiring and impressive women, and I am proud to say I am one of them."
Available via ereolen.dk
Photo via The Heroines of My Life
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