The woman that I am today would not exist without the miserable femmy kid trying to boy in the 1970s/80s.
I wouldn't be here as the me that I and you know.
My womanhood and what I understand about how much I value my existence in this life as a woman is causally and intimately bound with my 17 years of feeling like a bag of misery pretending to be a boy.
Those 17 years are a part of my womanhood and my femaleness.