Oh how wrong pre-2019 Isabelle was.

As horrible as 2021 has been as the 2nd year of Covid-19, Isabelle marked off two amazing things that I never thought she was ever going to do; doing a bridal photoshoot in January and ending off the year with an interview. 

The local media network Must Share News (under the parent company The Smart Local), sent out DMs via social media to a number of crossdressers in the community for their "Ask me anything" video series. Who would have thought crossdressers specifically would be of interest. After all, the stories and struggles of transgender folk who daringly transition are more interesting, and crossdressers tend to be very closeted. There is only one video from a local crossdresser's perspective that I know of, which is this piece on crossplayers here by Channel News Asia.

When I received the email from MSNews, I was wondering if it was real. But the email was written too formally to be fake and after a bit of digging around I verified that it was a legitimate request for an interview. The question now was, should I agree to be interviewed? It would be a fun experience to be interviewed as Isabelle. I could share my views and experiences to shed a bit of light on the very closeted community. But agreeing to the interview increased the risk of being recognised tremendously. The risk-reward calculator had alarms blaring in the background. Unlike my own social media account where I could control who had access to it and what was shared online, this video would be in the public domain. Relatives, friends, co-workers, acquaintances could be watching this video without my knowledge and suddenly realise that it was my guy self under the wig, makeup and dress. The thought of being outed was very very scary, because what was at stake was not only me, but my family as well.

I think there's a large amount of stupidity and YOLO involved here (vanity too, if I'm honest with myself), but I eventually agreed to the interview. I truly hope I don't regret my decision. 

The team at MSNews were respectful and very efficient in doing a pre-interview, arranging for the actual shoot and tidying up the drafts and final video, all within a couple of weeks. I suppose in this social media age, speed is very important.