By Iyanda
I call myself Thee Madame, a 29 year old transgender woman living and working in South Africa. I moved to Johannesburg in 2019, with hopes of getting a better life. I am a very creative person, self-taught in a lot of the things I currently do. I never went to college, but the streets taught me how to hustle and make money and change my life.
Upon moving to Johannesburg, I found a community of women and men who identified as trans, lived happy lives and were proud of the secret I had kept for most of my life. I found a new meaning to life. I remember I came out to my mother and my cousin, and they told me they knew about me, and they had no problem with it, unfortunately I lost most of my family members. Friends also just stopped being around as things felt weird and I wasn’t sure if I was coming or going.
As happy as I felt, I was dying of loneliness and I was alone, I fell into a deep hole of depression. I wanted more for myself, more life, more people, more friends. I started going out, creating new friendships, new connections, new relatives. It started getting better, then I started trying my hand in business. Let me explain something to you. Business is not for people who are trying, it’s for people who are ready to work full time, lose a lot of things to gain a legacy. Basically, business is not for everyone and as unprepared as I was, I managed to launch 4 businesses and one survived, then I closed it down again and went back to the drawing board.
As fortunate as I was in the business world things took a left turn and I lost everything. Life stopped; I lost people I thought were forever in my corner. As glamorous as I thought I was, romantic relationships have always not worked for me. I’ve always remained single, lonely and I have tried Tinder, Grinder, Instagram and all the other apps where you can potentially find love and “chille”, it’s not working out. Maybe I should ask my friends and family to arrange someone for me. I dream of getting married, having kids and being a full-time housewife whilst running my business ventures from my home.
I am currently about to start going to the trans clinic and getting my assessment into the transition process, again this is a milestone that I will always celebrate and treasure as it is a step closer to being Thee Madame that I see myself as. Don’t forget, my name is Iyanda, but you can address me as Thee Madame and this is a brief story about myself.
