Welcome to the Moth Podcast. I'm Larry Rosen, your host for this week. For 2022, the 25th

anniversary of the Moth, we've been taking a look back at every year we've been around.

This episode, we're at 2010. In 2010, the Moth radio hour won a Peebony and we opened

up our pitch line, allowing anyone to submit a two-minute version of the story they'd like

to tell. With the pitch line, the Moth was able to invite even more people from even

more backgrounds to share their stories. At this point, we receive hundreds of pitches

of month from all over the world. We listen to each and every one and then develop some

of them for Moth main stage shows worldwide. Here's a pitch we loved from Daniel Hart,

and Hamilton and Ohio. When I was growing up, I was the second oldest

of four girls. We were each about three to four years apart, which could have led to

some disastrous competition, but, blessedly, we got along pretty well as a whole. We were

known as the girls. We got along even better as we entered our 20s and despite discrediting

out across the country and the world. Even when we couldn't get back together for holidays

and birthdays, we would still Skype, even before COVID made that the cool thing to do.

Ten years ago, I came to understand the lifelong depression and anxiety that I dealt with

was related to my being a transgender man and not one of the girls at all. I was terrified

for what that would mean to my place in this very special sisterhood that I shared. I

came out to my younger sister's first and they accepted it as if I had simply said,

today is Tuesday. My older sister had far more questions, but was equally as accepting

once she understood. She mostly wanted to know what it would mean for my health in the

future. Ten years later, I now have two nieces from two of my sisters and this summer,

I realized that we have a whole new generation of the girls.

...