All right. Hello. Welcome to POV. You're my therapist. The podcast where I vet, you listen, and you do not get paid. Today, my guest is Raquel Willis. This lady has so many impersants in her title. Author, memoirist, activist, transliberator, black rights activist.

Welcome, Raquel.

Thank you.

And author, I already said that, but author of an upcoming memoir called The Risk It Takes

to Bloom.

As you can see, I'm knee-deep in this book. And first of all,

upon reading this, and by the time I got a quarter of the way through, you have such an

ability to, oh, don't be scared now. Don't be scared. But you have such an ability to really make people understand your mindset.

And I think, like, as somebody who's writing about their trans experience, that's so important.

Because I feel like a lot of people have the misconception that people just wake up one day and they're like, oh, I want to transition or, oh, I'm gay.

But I think you do a really good job at taking a step by step into seeing where your mind was at,

the experiences that one validated you, the moments that made you really think about your gender identity.

And I see those places all throughout the book, which is why I can't skim.

Right. I got you. Yeah, which is why I can't skim. Right.

I got you.

Yeah, because every time I try to skim, I dive deeper in the book.

And I'm like, damn, this is such a good piece.

And I feel bad because I'm skimming.

And I'm like, no.

But while you're writing the book, was it difficult to like tap into that part of your youth that was really confusing?

Well, you know what's interesting.

It wasn't, which is why I'm glad I wrote it at this point.

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