Elliot Page Reflects on “Damaging” Feelings About His Body During Puberty

Elliot Page is reflecting on a troublesome chapter in his life story.

The Umbrella Academy star, who got here out as transgender in 2020, opened up about his previous struggles with gender dysphoria in E! News’ unique take a look at The Freedom to Exist with Elliot Page: A Soul of a Nation Presentation, an ABC News Pride Month particular centered across the trans group and airing June 6.

Recalling how his physique began to alter throughout puberty, the 36-year-old mentioned that was the interval throughout which he additionally started “feeling a degree of discomfort that was very erosive and damaging.”

“I don’t think I, even at that point, had probably even heard the word ‘transgender,'” Page shared. “If it did come up, it would be briefly in health class with then the sound of laughter.”

To make issues worse, the actor mentioned he was closely bullied in school throughout that point, including to the inner “shame” and the sentiments of “self-disgust.”

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“I think with gender dysphoria, it’s being assigned a gender at birth based on your genitalia,” he continued, “and that being the reality of not who you are—and the incongruence and disconnect with that—just continues to chip away at you.”

Page mentioned his inside turmoil over gender id “especially became complicated” when he discovered fame in Hollywood. While struggling to really feel comfy in attire, the Juno alum remembered how “people would just go, ‘You’re an actor. Just put on the f–king clothes.'”

“But needless to say,” he added, “it was much more than that.”

In the previous, Page has been open about his journey, together with his battles with despair, nervousness and panic assaults earlier than transitioning. While he is acknowledges that surgical procedure is not vital for some within the transgender group, he beforehand shared that present process prime surgical procedure drastically improved his vanity.

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“Getting out of the shower and the towel’s around your waist and you’re looking at yourself in the mirror and you’re just like, ‘There I am,'” he instructed Oprah Winfrey in a 2021 interview. “It’s being able to touch my chest and feel comfortable in my body for probably the first time.”

Earlier this month, Page seemed again on how his struggles with gender dysphoria “used to be especially rife in the summer” as he tried to hid his physique in layers and outsized T-shirts.

“It feels so f’ing good soaking in the sun now,” he captioned a shirtless selfie. “I never thought I could experience this, the joy I feel in my body.”

The Freedom to Exist with Elliot Page: A Soul of a Nation Presentation airs June 6 on ABC and the following day on Hulu. Page’s memoir Pageboy additionally drops June 6.