Trans woman spends almost three years documenting her transition with 900 selfies
For the last 31 months, Siobhan McCann has been sharing her transition with the world by stitching her daily selfies into time-lapse videos.
Posting the project every few months on Instagram, she’s acquired almost 10,000 followers since the very first was published in April 2023.
Siobhan, who is 25 and grew up in South Florida, first realised she was trans when she was 22 – and started on HRT (hormone replacement therapy) three weeks later.
She first decided to create the time-lapses when she was worried that it wasn’t working – and found it comforting. She’s since taken more than 900 selfies, with each video taking hours of complicated editing to come to life.
‘I’d watch them every day to see how far I’d come when I felt like I wasn’t making progress,’ the photojournalist told MailOnline.
From then onwards, she quickly started becoming more playful with the process, making it appear as though she’d shaved her moustache across a few weeks – when it was actually all gone on the same day.
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Likewise, the captions always incorporate an element of humour, with previous ones reading ’26 months living under a 5G tower,’ ’16 months spreading Christmas cheer,’ and ’14 months eating soy.’
For her, introducing humour helps her to ‘defang and demystify’ the process ‘for people who might be curious or sceptical about it.’
She’s hardly missed a day, too, besides when Hurricane Ian hit her home in 2022 – and she subsequently skipped a week’s worth of pictures just one month into taking HRT.
‘You can kind of tell, because I look really tired when I come back because it was a rough time,’ she further told PinkNews.
‘But I just [take a photo] right before I brush my teeth every morning, and that’s worked so far. So, besides those days I missed during a hurricane power blackout, I think I’ve got basically every day.’
Throughout her journey, she’s received plenty of heartwarming support from her followers, including countless other trans people.
‘A lot of people have commented over the years that they saw this and it helped influence their decision,’ she added, describing it as ‘sweet.’
‘As a piece of work, recording something authentic and true, I think it’s the best I’ll ever do.’
‘Watching you get happier and happier is so cool,’ @glitterghoul commented on the May 2024 edition of her update, while @aidansrandomaccount noted that they started their own time lapse the same day they started HRT.
‘You are a beautiful girl, congratulations on assuming your true identity,’ @heartlayi penned, adding that she seemed ‘to be a very good person too.’
@xnathasaurus likened her video to a ‘super cool epic girl transformation speedrun (WORLD RECORD),’ while @artpiling said, ‘congratulations on finding yourself.’
In the age of the internet, trans people have long been using the power of selfies to document their transitions.
When YouTuber Jamie Raines first started taking testosterone in January 2015, he started taking selfies every single day to depict the changes he experienced.
Testosterone helps transgender men make their appearance more masculine, deepening the voice and allowing them to grow facial hair.
Jamie decided to take a selfie each day, but only initially intended to do it for a year.
However, when he started to grow facial hair, he continued to capture the photos as he wanted to show the world exactly how testosterone works – and ended up taking 1,400 photos of his transition over three years.
‘Within the first six months you didn’t see that much but as time went on it became more and more rewarding,’ Jamie told Buzzfeed at the time.
‘I’m very happy with what I see in the mirror and very grateful for how I look now.’
After appearing in the Channel 4 documentary Girls To Men in 2015, Jamie decided to continue depicting his journey – and posted the final update in 2020.
This version featured the ‘entire transition from the beginning to the end,’ including ‘testosterone, top surgery, bottom surgery, [a] new birth certificate, everything.’
And his girlfriend Shaaba – now wife – was by his side the entire time.