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Skylar Kergil Books In Order

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Before I Had the Words: On Being a Transgender Young Adult (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon

Skylar Kergil
Skylar Kergil was born in Acton, Massachusetts on May 19, 1991. He is a transgender singer-songwriter, activist, public speaker, artist, and YouTube personality.

Growing up, Sky would present himself as a tomboy, however in high school, he tried changing and fitting in with the girls, something he claims felt uncomfortable and fake. Pretty soon, he began hanging out with his high school’s lesbian crowd, wearing baggy clothes and cutting his hair short, and playing in a punk band. It still wasn’t the right fit for him.

It wasn’t until he was fifteen years old when he met a trans woman at a concert that Kergil realized who he was, or wasn’t. Kergil met with a gender therapist over the next few years, and began going by Skye, a more gender-neutral name. Skye came out to his parents as a transgender man, and despite being greeted initially by concern, he was quickly met with immense support from them. He began testosterone early in 2009, during his senior year of high school. The timing was important for him since he wanted to begin Skidmore presenting as a man.

On the internet, Skylar is most often known by his pseudonyms of “Skylareleven” and “Skylark”. He started documenting his transition on YouTube in the year 2009, while starting his hormone therapy. Transgender is not the only identity he assumes, however it has been the one that has formed his passions around LGBT rights and advocacy within the community.

After he finished high school, he went to Skidmore College, where he served on the board of the Pride Alliance, as a Peer Mentor, and was an active member of the community until he graduated on May 18, 2013 with leadership awards and honors. While at Skidmore, he also participated in some other clubs, including SkiDaiko and Japanese Taiko drumming group.

He majored in Art, first concentrating mainly in painting, with a short foray into ceramics, however later focusing more on photography. He also took many poetry classes, feeling pulled to the subject from the years that he wrote lyrics for his music. During his junior year, he penned an especially touching poem about this hero hen named Hera freeing her fellow hens from the factory farm.

During his freshman and second years, he made a strong group of friends that he is still friends with now, including Ethan Paul, his first year roommate and a subsequent excellent friend.

Skye was seen as one of the most genuine people on the whole entire Skidmore campus, and made friends easily wherever he went. He performed music at different informal concerts for his friends and open mic nights, always performing with his combination of grace and zeal. His passion for music was obvious, just ahead of his passions for taking selfies and working out.

He began attending Skidmore not wanting to be “out” to everybody as a trans man, having only come out to his friends, just not the wider community, as a whole. While his YouTube channel began growing however, he started realizing that he was in a position to make a difference in the lives of other people.

It was here that he began discovering his passion for activism, and realized that in order to really make a difference, he needed to begin living out to the community. During his senior year at Skidmore, he was asked to play music and speak at many local college events in upstate New York, which ignited his passion for this sort of activism.

Because of his written blogs and YouTube vlogs, he has been invited to speak internationally on high school and college campuses. However due to his wishes to finish his college career, he was forced to decline the majority of these invitations. He has spoken at the College of St. Rose in Albany, the 4th largest national Breaking the Silence Rally. He has presented at different colleges nationwide and at The American College Health Association annual conference, as well as other places.

Skylar is an avid writer and reader and a singer-songwriter. His music is mainly raw, single-track recordings.

His first band, called Degenerexix, had much more punk influences than his later music, which can be heard in a song called “Animals are Hardcore”. While his music tastes changed, he began writing more folk sounding music, and played solo under his own name, or Lentils and Dirt.

He used his art as a medium of activism “Re-humanizing the Transmasculine Community”, which started out as his senior thesis but has since continue.

“Before I Had the Words: On Being a Transgender Young Adult” is a non-fiction book that released in the year 2017. At the start of his physical transformation from female to male, Skylar (seventeen at the time) posted his first video on YouTube. In the months and the years after, he recorded weekly update videos on the emotional and physical changes that he experienced.

His openness and his positivity attracted thousands of viewers, who followed him while his body changed its shape and his voice deepened. Through surgeries and recovery, lows and highs, from high school and college and into the real world, he welcomed others into his journey.

This is the story of what came before he posted videos, as well as what happened behind the scenes. From his early childhood memories to the confusion and changes brought on by adolescence, Skylar reflects on his coming of age as he struggles to comprehend his gender.

The book gives an intimate view at the experience of transitioning from one gender to the another. He opens up about the long path to accepting himself and gaining his family’s acceptance. He shares stories along the way about tinier challenges like picking out a new name and learning to shave without any eyebrow mishaps.

Entries from the author’s personal journals along with interviews with his brother, mom, and friends lend some remarkable depth to his story. It is a groundbreaking chronicle of loss, change, pain, discovery, and relief. And it also brings a brand new meaning to the phrase “formative years”.

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