Caitlyn Jenner continues to reap the benefits of being her true self. Six weeks after coming out on the cover of Vanity Fair, the former Olympian once known as Bruce is thrilled with the outpouring of support from family, friends, and fans worldwide. On Monday, July 13, she took to her WhoSay blog to pen a note of appreciation and answer fans' questions.
"I knew that my transition would get some response, but I certainly never expected all of this," she wrote. "It's honestly been incredibly positive. I've met so many accepting people, including many through the 'Ask Me Anything' section on my site."
Though the reception has been overwhelmingly kind, Jenner said she has seen the dark side during her journey. “It's been both eye opening and difficult to see firsthand what so many members of the trans community have had to go through just to be themselves. I hope to help raise awareness of these hardships so that it becomes a less painful process going forward," she continued. "That said, the future looks bright."
As Jenner explained in her latest blog entry, she, like many other transgender people, lived their life with discomfort until it was just too much to bear. "I firmly believe that there are intensity levels of being trans. For example, a boy at a young age — four or five-years-old — might refuse to wear guy clothes and will only wear dresses. Not as a one-time thing, or as just dress-up play, but insistently, every day saying, 'I'm a girl,'" Jenner blogged. "They can't — and won't — hide their true identity, even at that young age. Then there are others, like me, who can (kind of) live with it for a long time, even though it's very uncomfortable."
Jenner was inspired to live in her truth as the 65-year-old patriarch of the Kardashian-Jenner family, when, as she said, she felt those childhood insecurities creeping in again. "I had all of the issues, but I was growing up in a very different time and I had no information. Meanwhile, I had all of my diversions — sports…this…that…married…family — but after 65 years, here I was right back with the same problems that I had when I was 10 years old and I had to finally do something about that," the thriced-divorced parent of six and (former) stepparent of four wrote.
Once she started revealing Caitlyn to the world, Jenner never looked back. Describing a recent trip she took with fellow transgender women, the star of E!'s I Am Cait recalled the freedom she had just to pack women’s clothes for the outing. "It was just truly a liberating experience," she blogged of sharing the five days with her new trans friends. "I knew then that I could never go back."
