Christie De Vries’s autobiography Down the Rabbit Hole...: An Autobiography is a brave, raw, and deeply personal account of a life marked by upheaval, survival, and transformation. Born in Germany in 1957, Christie emigrated to Australia as a child, where her life quickly became turbulent. She endured a painful and stormy relationship with her adoptive mother Anna, who shaped much of her early years with strictness, conflict, and at times cruelty. The abuse she suffered at the hands of her adoptive parents, combined with the alienation of being different, left her feeling both unwanted and unseen.
Her autobiography spares no detail in describing these struggles, offering readers a glimpse into the isolation of a child trying to make sense of a fractured world.
As Christie recalls, her adolescence was spent in institutions, places meant to control and discipline rather than nurture. Yet even within those walls, she carried the spark of her true identity. She began her transition in her late teens, starting hormone therapy at seventeen and undergoing gender reassignment surgery at twenty-one. The path to becoming herself was fraught with obstacles, impatience, and a society that offered little tolerance for transgender lives.
