Four years years ago after a weekend at the club I was in bed watching the 2003 masterpiece “The Lizzie McGuire Movie.” In the film Lizzie goes on a class trip to Rome and gets mistaken for an Italian pop-star. Throughout the movie they refer to her as Isabella or Ms. Parigi, and at one point someone yells “Isabella Parigi!” I audibly gasped and immediately changed my screen name here on Instagram. The name was just “that bitch” like Paris Hilton, or some other icon - catchy, sexy, and someone that everybody had to know. I liked the idea of having a screen name different from my birth name that allowed me to create a sort of character, a fantasy. I didn’t realize at that time how important this would become for me. Friends immediately started to call me Isabella and it just clicked. What began as something of a joke became a stepping stone onto a path of unraveling repression and trauma, beginning the long and difficult journey of exploring and embracing my queerness and trans/non-binary identity. I’ve found peace with the unknown as the nature of my ‘gender journey’ has been more of a transition-from rather than a transition-to and I don’t know where this road leads, but I’m here for the ride. So on this four-year anniversary I want to take a moment to thank miss Isabella Parigi, I love you. And it hasn’t been easy, but I love me too.🌹