For the past few decades, transgender people have been negatively portrayed in the media as either the butt of a joke or as a victim on a crime show. But thanks to open and authentic trans activists showing their beautiful lived experience globally, the transgender tide has turned in a massive and beautiful way. In the latest episode of Come Out Wherever You Are, Sean Szeps sat down with AJ Clementine. AJ is one of those changemakers moving the needle here in Australia.
AJ is part of a new generation of young Australian transgender content creators changing that narrative. By sharing her transition journey and her life as a young model and advocate, AJ and her friends are showing the world just how beautiful their lived experience can be.
It wasn’t the joke. It wasn’t the villain in some movie, like some cis straight man, wasn’t vomiting at the thought of a trans woman. So then I just thought that maybe this could be the answer. Like, maybe this is me.
AJ Clementine
AJ discovered that gender reassignment surgery existed thanks to her English teacher, “My English teacher showed me a news article of Kim Petras and how she went through gender reassignment surgery at 16 in Germany. And I just was so shocked. I just I couldn’t believe that that was a thing. I was like, wow, like, you can change your body like that?”
From an early childhood of expressing herself femininely, to socially transitioning while going through puberty, coming out to her family, medically transitioning and creating an impressive career online to share her truth, this episode will give you all the hope you need for a brighter and more accepting future for young queer people living in Australia.
AJ is an Australian model, activist and social media content creator with nearly 1.6M followers on TikTok alone. As if that wasn’t keeping her busy enough, she’s just written a book called Girl, Transcending: Becoming the woman I was born to be.