National Geographic | January 2017

Follow A Transgender Teen's Emotional Journey To Womanhood

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National Geographic | January 2017


When Massachusetts twins Caleb and Emmie Smith were born in 1998, it was hard to tell them apart. Today Emmie says, “When we were 12, I didn’t feel like a boy, but I didn’t know it was possible to be a girl.” At 17 Emmie came out as transgender, and recently she underwent gender-confirmation surgery. She plays down its significance: “I was no less of a woman before it, and I’m no more of one today.”