Support Eli’s top surgery

Hello! My name is Eli, and I’m raising funds to go towards my top surgery.

I’ve always felt that something wasn’t quite right. I never truly felt like myself, nor like I was living my own life. It wasn’t until puberty that I realised what the cause was. I loathed the way I looked and felt, not because of the usual reasons my peers would express. I didn’t think I looked terrible, it just wasn’t me. I tried hard to pretend to be someone I wasn’t, a girl who wore makeup and dresses, a girl who dressed grunge and listened to emo bands, but no matter what I tried, it was never me.

When I began socially transitioning, I started to finally see glimpses of myself. For the first time in my entire life I could imagine a future for myself, and as my transition progresses, I feel more and more excited for the future, MY future. I also realised that I DO want to be around for whatever the future holds for me, after many… many thoughts of the opposite. With each and every step of my transition, I get more and more happy with the me I see in the mirror.

To ease dysphoria, I bind every day. It’s incredibly uncomfortable and much to my dismay, very ineffective for someone such as myself who has a larger chest. I miss out on experiencing so much the world has to offer. I don’t want to go outside because I don’t like my chest, I can’t go anywhere without a jacket on to hide my chest, I decline invites from friends, and I push potential friends away. It may seem silly to some, but it’s deadly important for me. I would like to wear t-shirts and feel comfortable. I would love to be able to wear clothes that I could express myself in, without worrying about how to cover my chest. I would like to make more friends as myself.

I’m 18 years old and have struggled significantly with mental health before pushing myself to complete my VCE certificate and achieve the scores I needed to enter university (despite scepticism from my teachers )! My dream is to go down the path of becoming a psychologist, but before I embark upon this path, I would like to do so completely as me. I want to experience my adult life authentically, from beginning to end, having missed that opportunity for my teenage life.

Thankfully, I have a brilliant and supportive mother, but unfortunately we struggle financially, and my father is not supportive. Similar to many young people in their first jobs, I work at McDonald’s, which, as you can imagine, does not take me very far. We don’t have private health insurance, and we would not be able to afford it.

I hope to reach those who can understand my struggles as a young person who has found their truth, but is blockaded by the barriers of cost, I hope to reach those who can understand the struggles of crippling dysphoria that deprives a young trans person from experiences, and I hope those people would be kind enough and willing to support me.

All donations would go towards all appointment (consultation fees and potentially psychologist appointments for the psychologist letter) and surgery costs relating to top surgery. Any and everything helps, and is absolutely and utterly appreciated. I don’t expect to reach the $10,000 goal, but anything raised helps unburden the cost :)