• 6 years ago
Caitlyn Jenner reflects on how her life has changed since transitioning into a woman.
Two years ago, the celebrated Olympic hero and famous reality TV show dad then known as Bruce Jenner revealed to the world in an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer that he had struggled his entire life with gender identity.
Now, two years later, Caitlyn Jenner has fully transitioned to living as female. She detailed this journey in her new memoir, “The Secrets of My Life,” out on April 25, and sat down with Sawyer for a second exclusive interview to talk about what becoming a woman has been like for her and the highs and lows along the way.

Overall, Jenner said she is still a “work in progress.”

“I’ve grown into Caitlyn,” she said. “It’s tough to take 65 years of being Bruce and being male, and then like, overnight, everything changes. At first you don’t know how to handle it.”

In Sawyer’s first interview, Jenner said, “Bruce lives a lie -- she is not a lie.” Today, Caitlyn Jenner said she is “happy” and “peaceful.”

“[There is] peace in my soul,” she said. “All of that confusion has left me.”

When she ventures outside her Malibu home, Jenner said she’ll take 20 to 40 selfies a day with strangers who walk up to her. Even a typical trip to the supermarket is met with people pulling out their phones, asking for photos with her. Jenner said she tries to accommodate all of them, no matter who asks.

“I had a guy actually ... ask for a selfie and said, ‘Oh Bruce, could you give me a selfie?’ And I looked at him. Nobody’s called me that in two years almost now, and I said, ‘No problem,’” she said. “I want them to walk away saying, ‘Oh Caitlyn Jenner was so nice’ .... that transpeople, yes, are approachable ... and they are a vital part of our society.”

Jenner and Diane Sawyer: See their last wide-ranging conversation
Jenner: When did she know
Once she began her transition, Jenner traveled a long road of hormone therapy, surgery and dealing with a world of criticism from all sides.

The first time she appeared publicly as Caitlyn Jenner was in the bombshell July 2015 Vanity Fair cover photo, in which she was clad in a white body suit and featured with long, sweeping brown hair and makeup. The headline? “Call me Caitlyn.”
“My feeling on that picture, I know, my kids that thought, ‘You know what? It’s a little too much,’” Jenner said. “But from my standpoint, I had suffered for 65 years, OK? To have a beautiful shot of my authentic self was important.

“And the shock value,” she continued. “I wanted to end the old Bruce, my old life ... and that picture did it.”

Four months after that cover came out, Jenner took another brave step into the spotlight when she appeared in a long, white gown in front of 6,000 people at the ESPY Awards, a ceremony that honors excellence in athletic achievements. On stage, Jenner, who became a national hero after she won the decathlon at the 1976 Olympics, faced her peers as a woman for the time

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