When I was 11 I would try on my sister’s clothes. It was thrilling for me to wear lingerie and dresses and I longed to go out dressed as a girl. My sister found out what I was doing and she threatened to tell our Mom if I didn’t stop. I guess she took pity on me and she gave me her old clothes if I would promise that I would wear only what was in the two lower drawers and the things in the very back of her closet with tape on the hangers. I was ecstatic and I finally got up the nerve to ask her to help me with makeup. She said she would if I bought my own and she gave me some of her old mascara, eye shadow, an old eyebrow pencil and I gave her money to buy eyeliner, lip gloss, lip liner and foundation.
Well, needless to say I was now dressing whenever I could. Because I couldn’t drive yet, I asked her if she would take me shopping at a mall near us and I went with her dressed in a wrap skirt, sweater, opaque tights and mules. She told me not to talk out loud and I would probably pass. She let me use one of her purses and a car coat and told me if I sat down to keep my legs together , cross them at the ankle or knee and to keep my hands in my lap unless I was doing something. She also told me to take little steps and to keep my shoulders back. Now I wanted to go out dressed as a girl whenever I could, which, sadly, was not that often.
