Social work practice with female-to-male transgender and gender variant youth

Adolescence is a period of development focused on discovering one’s role and identity in the world. It is a time of exploration, self-discovery, and testing new independence. Such challenges and changes provoke anxiety and stress for all adolescents, but especially those who cannot conform to the social norms expected from their peer group, family, and/or community. Adolescents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender feel their difference more deeply. One person I interviewed described it as “living alone with a chasm between me and the rest of the world.”