I Just Came Out as Nonbinary at 33 and I’ve Never Been Happier

[View this email in your browser]( | [Manage newsletter subscriptions](newsletter=all2) [Allure logo image]( June 27, 2023 [three figures (purple, red, and purple) silhouetted over a white background to symbolize nonbinary gender identity]( Why It Took Me Two Decades to Realize I'm Genderqueer This is an excerpt from [an essay by Dr. Varuna Srinivasan]( in which the sex educator and writer recalls questioning their gender from a young age. Genderqueer is a word I have only known for three or so years. Prior to discovering it, I had only known two words with regard to gender: “woman” and “man.” Like many, my conceptions of gender fit neatly into the binary system laid out for us since youth. Growing up, my dad graciously used the word “tomboy” to describe me. According to him, the way I dressed, [wore my hair](, and sat were all somehow boy-ish, but I was a girl (or, at least, that is the [gender I was assigned at birth](), and “girls don’t sit with their legs open.” I thought it was merely my parents who held these beliefs until a teacher in school informed me that I was in possession of the “attitude of a boy,” whatever that meant. When I was 13, puberty took my body and my brain by storm. Growing breasts, armpit hair, and [pubic hair](? God, I was not ready for the throbbing clitoris either. I found solace in loose, comfy t-shirts—they were protective shields as I navigated these bodily changes. But even this was soon subjected to scrutiny from others. For the rest of Dr. Srinivasan's story, including how they found their own sense of style and ultimately came to use she/they pronouns, [read the full essay on Allure](. [READ MORE]( [Sign up for Allure's Beauty Box]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Pinterest]( This e-mail was sent to you by [allure.com](. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, allure@newsletters.allure.com, to your address book. View our [Privacy Policy]( [Unsubscribe]( or [Manage your newsletter subscriptions](newsletter=all2) Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.