When Alexus Sheppard speaks about her life, she does so with a disarming blend of candor and humor. Her memoir, From Both Sides Now: One Woman’s Journey to Love and Living Life to Its Fullest, is not just a chronicle of gender transition but an intimate story of courage, love, and self-discovery.
In my Heroines of My Life interview with her, she described herself as “an outsider since childhood,” never quite fitting into the mold that her conservative Christian upbringing in rural Kansas tried to impose. That sense of otherness became the seed of a journey that would eventually reshape her entire life.
For years, Alexus lived under the name Allen. On paper, he had everything, a family, a comfortable home, financial security, but inside, he felt fractured. She told me that for a long time she tried to rationalize her feelings by labeling herself “just a crossdresser,” a compromise she hoped might preserve her marriage. But the truth was louder than the label.
