Weren’t gender reveal parties left behind in 2019? What? They weren’t? Oh, no. (Stock photo via Elements Envato)
A supportive mum held a second gender reveal party for her transgender daughter after realising she made a mistake with the first one.
Julie Hindsley, 33, from Texas, USA, threw a huge gender reveal party when she fell pregnant with her second child, Ella, six years ago.
She had a gut feeling she was having a girl, but when she and her husband bit into their ‘gender reveal’ cake pops, the filling was bright blue inside.
“I was ready to be a full-on boy mom with a life filled with baseball, superheroes, and dirt,” she told Love What Matters. “What I did not know is this gender reveal did not really reveal anything about the child we were having at all.”
As soon as Ella became old enough to express herself she was drawn to traditionally ‘female’ things — playing with dolls, dressing in her mother’s clothing, and wearing a towel on her head to imitate long, flowing locks.
“We were convinced it was either a phase or we were likely going to have a gay son,” Hindlsey said. But when Ella started talking, it was clear that this wasn’t the case.
“I want to be a girl, mom! Just make me a girl!” she begged at the age of three. Ella’s parents allowed her to grow out her hair, but the questions didn’t end there.
“As she was growing out her hair she would say things like, ‘When I’m a sister…’, ‘When my hair is long and I am a girl..’,” Hindsley recalled.
“One day riding home from daycare she told me: ‘I was supposed to be a girl in your tummy Mom. Why did I not come out as a girl?’ Comments like these didn’t stop.”
After doing some research Hindsley and her husband decided to seek professional help, both for themselves and for Ella.
Their therapist recommended that they let Ella begin to socially transition, in line with scientific advice that shows gender identity manifests at a very young age.
Ella flourished, and after the coronavirus outbreak temporarily closed her school, her parents decided to tell the world that their child is actually a little girl.
The couple announced to friends and family that they would now be using she/her pronouns for their daughter and that her new name was Ella.
Their Facebook post was spotted by photographer Heather Harris Witt, who is a parent to a queer child, a gay son, herself. She reached out and offered to do a photoshoot to celebrate Ella’s gender identity.
The Hindsley jumped at the opportunity, feeling it was necessary for Ella “so she knows that she is not a mistake”.
“We have mourned and continue to do so, but we are moving forward celebrating our brave Ella — and her favourite colour has always happened to be pink,” the proud mum says.