Joseph

"For me, coming to New York is, am I dreaming? I was lucky enough, shortly after arriving to New York to get connected to the Free to Be Youth Project. Am I’m so happy that I signed my work permit authorization, because I’m just gonna move forward my life here. And that’s what I came here to do. Start a new life."

Majé

"I insist on existing. Because we’ve been so programmed to be a certain way, to live inside certain boxes, if you’re too free, you’re too expansive, it reminds other people that they can’t be expansive, you know. That you don’t have to be confined to the boxes that we’ve been placed in."

Ariah

"And I said, you know what? It is time. It’s time to let this old person go and become the new woman that you see yourself as when you look into that mirror. Not what everybody else sees. What you see. I’m going to move. I want to go to New York. I want to get my name changed, my gender market changed, so I can finally that ID on a table and say, What does it say? I am a female, I am here and I’m not going anywhere."

Maliha for "Becoming"

The Free to Be Youth Project’s upcoming documentary, “Becoming,” explores the nuances of gender-affirming care from the perspective of unhoused and at-risk LGBTQ+ youth as they envision what is possible for their future looks and lives, deconstruct and reconstruct clothing and ideas, and work on and off the runway to become their most authentic selves.

Lemoy

“What freedom really means to me is to discover who I am. Finding my likes and my dislikes. I want to be able to talk the way I want and to express myself too without being misgendered, harassed, mistreated."

Davina

“I definitely starting looking for love more within myself and giving it to myself instead of expecting it from other people and from other things.”