Alia Ismail, from Detroit, Michigan, came out as a transgender man when she was 18 and began a medical transition that saw her take hormones and have her breasts removed at 20.
But in February 2021, Alia, a barber from Detroit, Michigan, decided to detransition after realizing that her new identity as a trans man didn’t represent who she was.
Reflecting on why she chose to transition, Alia, who suffered major trauma as a young woman, said: ‘I thought being a man was better. I felt safe for a while. I didn’t have to worry about other men tormenting me as much anymore.’
Her first step in her detransitioning journey was to stop taking testosterone. She made the choice to live as a woman without breasts, but two years on, she has decided to have a fat graft transfer to create breasts after growing ‘frustrated’ by her body.