Help Casey fund their Top Surgery

Hello everyone! Please take time to read my story, I would greatly appreciate it!

My name is Casey Stedman. I am gender-fluid and I use any pronouns with a preference for they/them. I am planning on getting a double mastectomy (top surgery for short) to help make my chest look less feminine and more androgynous.

For several years, I have always struggled with how I perceived myself gender wise. I always thought, “I’m just a girl who likes to dress masculine sometimes” and I would leave it there. However, I would always feel detached from myself whenever I looked like a girl, saw myself as a girl, or had others see me as a girl. It caused a lot of mental discourse and exhaustion trying to figure out what I was going through and why I was going through it.

It started in freshman year, when I tried out having a shorter hair cut and wearing more masculine clothes to see if I would enjoy seeing myself that way. I knew what the term transgender meant at the time, but didn’t understand it’s full spectrum; I thought it only meant transitioning from female to male or vice versa. When I realized that I didn’t want to look like a boy either, I was back at square one.

I went on through high school dressing the way I wanted to, avoiding looking too feminine or too masculine. I wore clothes that were much too big for me just so I could hide my body from everyone. It wasn’t until after high school, I had learned the terms “non-binary” and “gender-fluid”. I also came to learn that transgender was just an umbrella term for those who wanted to transition to either the opposite gender or to non-binary or gender-fluidity. Another term I became familiar with very quickly was “gender dysphoria” and for those who don’t know: gender dysphoria is defined as a sense of unease that a person may have because of a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity.

It was like a new door to my path of self-discovery had opened up and I thought really hard about what these terms could mean for how I currently felt about myself.

I came to what I thought was a conclusion and decided that I was non-binary, because I couldn’t stand the thought of being seen as a girl or a boy. I came out to my closest friends, and then in December of 2020, I came out to the rest of my friends and acquaintances over social media. The amount of support and positivity I received was overwhelming and can’t thank you all enough for being so supportive.

Even after being out as non-binary and using they/them pronouns, I was still feeling a bit off about myself. I tried out different pronouns and different names with my closest friends to see if I liked them, but none of it seemed to be the answer. Then, I realized that maybe I was feeling this way is because I was still trying to box myself into one category, which I know that non-binary itself isn’t a category and there’s really no such thing as “passing” as non-binary.

From then on, I have been identifying as gender-fluid and I use any pronouns with a preference for they/them. I started buying binders to bind my chest in to make myself seem more androgynous. Now that I had accomplished figuring out what my gender identity was, another problem came up that’s been haunting me for years: my body.

I thought that I could stick to binding my chest and I would be fine, but it’s gotten so bad that when I’m not binding, I can’t stand to look at myself in the mirror and I don’t recognize the person looking back at me. As a result, I reached out to Dr. Marco Ellis, a plastic surgeon who works out of Northwestern and have heard very good things about. I hope to get a consultation appointment soon!

Now, I know that what I have as my target amount is not going to be the full amount of what it will cost nor do I even expect to get completely to my target amount, but I really do hope you consider donating even just a little bit to help me feel more comfortable and free in my own skin.

Thank you for taking time to read my story! I really appreciate it!