I don’t like being labeled a “transwoman.” I am trans, but it isn’t who I am. It isn’t all I am. I wanna provide an opportunity for people to get to know me deeper. I didn’t even begin to guess I was trans, or that I wanted to be girl anyways, until 1st grade. I was 7 years old. By that time I already had firmly held interests in things such as space, dinosaurs, computers, toys, video games, comic books, fantasy, magic, horror and Star Wars. Let me break my interests down one by one with what it means to me and why it’s important for me to share my interests with others.
Let’s start with Star Wars. I developed an interest in this early one. Believe it or not I didn’t watch the original trilogy in release order. I would often rent Star Wars, as it was called back then, from the video store. I had Return of the Jedi, as it was called back then, on VHS recorded off HBO. I grew up with that as my exposure to Star Wars lore. I also had some of the story books and a few of the toys. It wasn’t until around the mid 90s when Power of the Force came back that I really began getting into Star Wars toys. By that time I was able to record The Empire Strikes Back onto a VHS tape, commercials and all. I also started reading some of the novels. By the time I was 17 I had read every published Star Wars novel released up to that point. I stopped reading when the New Jedi Order became a thing. I never got into that.
I also played Star Wars video games on my game consoles. I had Return of the Jedi Death Star Battle on Atari 2600. I rented Star Wars on NES and Empire Strikes Back on NES. A friend of mine let me pay Star Wars on his Sega Game Gear on the bus ride to school. My first time watching any Star Wars in the theater was the Special Edition re-releases in 1997. I was ecstatic to have the chance to see it fresh with a new coat of paint. I instantly fell in love with the Special Editions making them my preferred method of viewing the Original Trilogy.
I was obsessed with Star Wars at a time when most of my peers thought of it as this old movie only nerds still liked. When I was in second grade I stayed after school animated, using manual bit mapping line, by line in BASIC code, a rendition of the Death Star. I will always cherish my childhood Star Wars memories. I even would regularly “play” Star Wars with my friends and even my sisters. It was a very big deal to me.
Now let’s talk stars. I became interested in astronomy probably out of my love of Star Wars itself. I would read every single astronomy book I could get my hands on. I even would beg the librarian to let me check out books beyond my supposed reading level. Some librarians made me take a reading test on the computer to measure my reading level but I was happy to take the test if it meant getting new star books. I was very young when I knew who Isaac Asimov was. I quickly learned if his name was on a book I would enjoy it. By the time I got to college I took a 100 level astronomy course to fulfill my science requirement. I loved going to the observatory. I remain obsessed with space even to this day.
What about horror you ask? Believe it or not I was thoroughly interested into horror by the time I was in 1st grade. I would often beg my parents to let me rent “scary movies” from the video store. I didn’t limit myself to kids movies either. I would regularly rent things like 976-EVIL, Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Sometimes They Come Back, Child’s Play, The Thing, Invaders From Mars, Killer Klowns From OuterSpace, and so many more. My parents didn’t care what movies I rented. It didn’t take long before the slasher genre became my favorite sub genre of horror with A Nightmare on Elm Street elevated to status of my favorite movie of all time. I even played the crap out of the NES Elm Street video game. I was obsessed with Freddy Krueger. I remain so to this day.
How about toys? Well all kids play with toys. I was no exception. The difference is I kept buying Transformers, as collectibles, well into my 20s. By the time I was 30 I found I wanted more than just re-buying the old toys from my childhood. I fell in love with all toys of all shapes and for all ages. Today my interests span from action figures, Barbie, GI Joe, super heroes, TMNT, Star Wars, video game characters, comic book characters, cartoon characters Funko Pops, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, Hot Wheels, Legos, Matchbox and more. I even have Nerf guns and a few odds and ends like Light Bright, Rubick’s Cube, and others. I love toys. It is a special interest of mine.
Much like how I was fascinated by astronomy I was also deeply invested in paleontology too. I loved dinosaurs. I spent as much time reading about them as I did star books. I even had toy dinos. I was beyond excited when Jurassic Park came out. I read the book ahead of release to be prepared. I watched The Flintstones, Denver the Last Dinosaur, The Land Before Time and the Jim Henson Dinosaurs. I also bought dinobots Transformers. Unlike most of my childhood interests, however, I eventually did lose interest in dinosaurs. Not that I have a problem with science or anything it’s just they kept changing what I thought I knew and I got tired of trying to keep up with it all. I still call it Brontosaurus and nobody is going to change my mind on that.
I was interested in computers before I was even old enough to know what a computer even was. I was just fascinated by the technology. These little boxes you interacted with. I didn’t even care what they were used for I just wanted to use one. I played with a lot of computers over the years. My first was an Atari 800XL. I loved that thing to death. I didn’t care it didn’t “do much” I was just happy to play around with it.
Fantasy and magic go hand in hand. I was interested in both before I had words. I loved swords and sorcery. I loved magicians and wizards, elves, gnomes, unicorns, etc., I was deeply fascinated by all things fantasy, fairy tale, mythology and witchcraft. I was obsessed with this stuff to the point my first religious experiences or spiritual experience was witchcraft. When I learned there was a fantasy game called Dungeons and Dragons I couldn’t wait to get some dice, read the books and play with my friends. Let me just say I have been playing ever since and likely nothing will deter me from playing even well into my old age.
My first video game console was a knock off Atari clone. It was a Coleco Gemini that played Atari 2600 games. No it was NOT a Colecovision with an adaptor it was a dedicated clone console. It had it’s own style controller too. True story. When I was in kindergarten they forced me to stop using my left hand to instead use my right hand. I was already clumsy so this caused a deficiency in my fine motor skills. As a result I was put into physical therapy and special education. I was told, by my therapist, I needed to play more video games to improve my hand-eye coordination. So my parents bought us a Nintendo Entertainment System. While I did have to technically share it with my sisters, my parents let me keep it in my own bedroom hooked up to my own TV. If they wanted to play I had to let them into my room. Which I usually did anyways because I liked taking turns with my sisters. I continue to be fascinated with video games to this day.
I can’t tell you what my first comic book was or when I read it. In my memories comic books were always just there. I think I learned how to read by flipping through the pages of Batman, Ritchie Rich, Looney Tunes, Superman, X-Men, Spider-Man, Transformers, Casper, and so many other comics. I never “collected” comics. I bought them to read. To this day I read comic books all the time. I have over 200 individual titles and more than 2 dozen trade paperbacks.
These are just some of the things I am deeply interested in. If you want to get to know me or plan on having a conversation with me it is often best to pick from one of these topics of interest.
Stephanie Bri 