A manga called Love me for who I am.
The main character is non-binary but presents in a feminine way, and they’re recruited by a classmate to work on a maid cafe. The story is very sincere, and shows many of the struggles we face. I’ve read it pretty early on my transition and related hard to many of the characters. On that note, there’s so many colors of the rainbow in there – trans women, cross-dressing cis guys, gay guys, a lesbian woman, and of course the non-binary protagonist. It’s a great story.
Somebody around here linked this on mangadex a few months ago, and I haven’t been able to stop binge-reading yuri manga since. True story.
does celeste count
I wonder why you picked that username
It may sound silly to some, but “Guilty Gear Strive” - i.e. Bridget - was very important to me. Once I realized that I was envious of a character from a game who could have something that I had not (a transition), it was the final crack in the egg. If I wanted to have what Bridget had, I had to pursue it IRL and I do since then.
Re-reading some time ago, this weird manga called Boku girl, more than a decade after first reading it when I was barely a teenager.
Image of page in here, to take less space
The amab main character,
(the eggiest of all eggs that have ever egged, (his body transformed fully into a cis girl’s body “Against his Will”(a Loki did it))),
has been trying to process the conflict between his role as a man, against her Joy, and euphoria, and her own desires, all throughout the story.
During an aquarium visit, it’s explained to him that Clown Fish can change sex. Pondering that she asks, reading from right to left:
The series drew me in as a child, when I couldn’t understand anything at all about me, but this page, years later, made me believe the validity and importance of asking the question, now that many other things are already in place in my mind.
Hit me like a truck.
So now at least some of my close friends, those that truly care about this question, know.
Whipping Girl early in my transition. It was really eye opening to read about the possibility of my trans identity being something other than a source of shame. It was the birth of my trans feminist path
Further along, Detransition Baby. That one hit me really hard. Close to home in some ways, but even when it wasn’t, it felt authentic. Trans literature for a trans audience.
I love literature for and by trans people. The first time I really felt seen in that way was when I read Small Beauty by Jia Qing Wilson-Yang. You can just tell that it was written by a trans woman with lived experience. Trans stories written by cis people just have different vibes.
For me, I found reading Honeybee extremely impactful when I started questioning my gender. Seeing someone go through the same struggles as me and having the same thoughts helped push me to finally visit my local gender clinic and start transitioning.
It alerted me to the idea that I don’t have to want or achieve masculine goals or presentation and that I don’t even have to call myself a man. It cracked my egg pretty hard.
Onimai (anime) definitely got my brain churning and thinking about what I want in life, and that I’m not happy about my body in multiple ways
Edit; ohh, somebody else mentioned BNA(anime: Brand New Animal). That’s a good one too.
Plenty of webcomics too, Misfile, another I forget the name of (guy gets turned onto a magical girl by loki, untransforms and is… still female.), SuperNormalStep (diverse cast, AroAce MC), Kill 6 Billion Demons (just… holy shit. And unholy shit.). I’ve read a LOT of webcomics now that I’m thinking about it 😶
Animal Crossing New Horizons. Game came out right at the start of a pandemic and within two weeks I was girl moding in game.
Took me a year and a half to understand what that meant exactly, but the game let me explore what it means for me to be femme and try on different looks.
I probably would have figured it out without Animal Crossing, but I bet it would have taken way longer.
I think the BNA anime helped me greatly. Too bad it doesn’t exist as a normal Blu-ray to buy only as some super expensive special edition.
Persona 3 Portable and Persona 5 Royal. I had an xbox game pass. I got half way through persona 3 and loved playing as kotone shiomi. I have played as a girl in video games for years whenever it was an option. It hadn’t occurred to me why I chose female characters until I switched to persona 5 Royal because my subscription was ending soon, and I was disappointed by the lack of a female protagonist option. I realized the reason I was disappointed was because I enjoyed the gendered experience. I got to be one of the girls. I’ve never played a game with an acknowledgement of my femininity before, and it was really nice.
Your Name just perfectly scratched the itch in my brain early into transition.