One part of the interview that Monica (from the Heroines of my Life) did with Fran Fried really struck a chord with me: Monika: "You transitioned into a woman in your late 40s. Have you ever regretted doing this so late in your life?" Fran: "I guess everything in its time – though it would’ve made my life a hell of a lot easier had I been able to do this at a much younger age. But I couldn’t have done this back when I was a kid, in the ’60s and ’70s, for several reasons. I grew up with strict parents in a Catholic home. Also, there was very little understanding of gender dysphoria at the time, among professionals and laypeople alike – I mean there wasn’t really a common language until the early 2010s, when you think about it – and had I gone to a therapist back then as a tortured teen, I might have ended up even more screwed-up So yes – I would’ve loved to have been able to transition as a child or a teen, because it might have helped me avoid years of depression,