Buffy: As a child, I was very quiet and naive. I don’t think as a child I was prepared for what my gender expression and some of my identities would mean for me as an adult. And I guess I thought that I could be the pink Power Ranger my entire life and that was definitely a lesson I had to learn kind of early.

Louie: When and where did you get the message that you couldn’t be the Pink Ranger forever?

Buffy: I never received the message in a particularly violent or aggressive way. It was a lot of micro-aggressions that added up to something bigger. And growing up, basically from kindergarten all the way through college, my friends were dominantly female identifying people. It was my way of creating a haven from the boys that kind of looked at me funny or made fun of comments about how I walked. So I think it was never all at once, it was slowly over time and one day I kind of woke up realizing that I wasn’t “supposed to be this way.“

Louie: When did you begin to reject that notion?

Buffy: Anyone who knows me knows that I have a lifelong obsession with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And being fem, I always kinda idolized my mom because she was really what I thought a girl was supposed to be. Now I know that is not necessary the only way, but as a child, I was so enamored with princesses, pretty things and Barbie, and my mom was like that. She was a young mother so I had the mom that everyone thought was my sister. So I just wanted to be just like her. She used to watch Buffy and I was told that I wasn’t allowed to because it had monsters and violence and so it became my life goal to watch the show. When I became 13 years old, I started asking for it for Christmas and each time I would get the seasons. The first two seasons didn’t really register for me anything specific but when I moved in with my father and went into an environment that was really kind of anti-fem and really ESPN, Madden Football, soccer, all that stuff it - became my escape. I would go up to my room and watch Buffy and at that time, I was feeling really quite alone. Watching Buffy, who is ultimately the slayer, which means she is the only one, gave me something to identify with so I became the slayer so to speak in my own life.

Buffy Flores, Philadelphia PA

Note: Buffy now uses She/Her pronouns. Please use those pronouns when commenting and/or sharing this post.