KarenSerenity.com-OFFICIAL WEBSITE-Karen Serenity Positive Thinking Successful Transsexual Women Role Models for Post-Operative, Male-To-Female Transsexual Women! Gallery Page 5.

From left-to-right - Terry Noel in 1972 (Norfolk, Virginia) - On the job in 1993 (Norfolk, Virginia) - In Cincinnati, Ohio (2005).

Random Thoughts

As the old song says, “Life Ain’t Easy for a Boy Named Sue.” That’s for sure! Life ain’t easy for a boy who acts like Sue, either. Fortunately, I grew up in a very small town and was treated with a modicum of respect by my peers. I am very glad for that because I knew, pre-puberty, that I was not like the other boys. I also had a vicious father who reminded me with regular beatings that I was not like his other sons. My devotion to reading and playing the piano was my refuge from my home life. I prayed every night for God to change me into a girl. Every morning I awoke to the disappointment that God had not heard my prayer.

At 15, I began working summers between school terms in and around Cincinnati, Ohio. It was as a wild child, on the streets of the city, that I met others like myself and learned the facts of life. I thought I was just gay, like my friends. However, there was a deeper feeling in me that made me feel guilty and ashamed of “being gay.” There was also the fact that I always wanted my partners to not be gay. In other words, I wanted to be the female in the situation. This feeling was very strong and always present.

At 16, I read the story of Christine Jorgensen in a sleazy exploitation magazine my father had bought. I felt as if I had been struck by lightning. I saw that what I wanted was possible and, for the first time, I had hope for a life that would let me be myself. Accomplishing that change in my life would take the next 13 years and be the focus of hours of happy and scary thought.

From left-to-right - Jewel Box Review Marquee (New York City, 1959), Terry Noel, 82 Club program booklet (New York City,1965).

In 1959 I joined the Jewel Box Revue after winning a drag contest in a local bar. I was with the Jewel Box Revue for about 15 months and then took a job at the 82 Club in New York City. I was there for six years. During my 82 Club years, I learned of a doctor who was giving some of the girls in the show female hormones in preparation for their “sex-change” operations. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to go to him. He was very famous and very expensive. As luck would have it, I was given the name of another doctor in Brooklyn by the club management. I went to see him and he agreed to give me hormone pills and a weekly injection, gratis. I did that for 18 months.

From left-to-right - Little 2 year old "boi" Terry in her home town of Covington, Kentucky (1938) - 28 year old

Terry Noel in Acapulco, Mexico (1966) - Getting ready for a night on the town in New York City, New York (1966).

Please understand that in those days there were no resources to be found for making these difficult life decisions. There was no internet, no wonderful web sites like this one and no knowledge anywhere, except by word of mouth. There was nothing very reliable out there. For example, I learned the name of my first surgeon by way of a transsexual prostitute who was a friend of a friend. Today, information is much more reliable and resources are available to everyone. I think that is wonderful!!

I had my first SRS procedure in September of 1965, meeting the surgeon in Chicago for a clandestine trip to a small hospital in a small town in Illinois. There were complications from that surgery and in 1968 I had another major surgery in Yonkers, New York, which was successful. I had accomplished my goal and was living as a woman.

I can remember very well the first time I went out into the world to look for an office job as Miss Terry. I stood for about 30 minutes in the stairwell of my building before I was able to summon the courage to go to the corner to catch the subway for downtown. But I did it and have never looked back.

I had several office jobs around New York City, but in 1969, decided to leave the city for Virginia Beach, Virginia. There I met and married a military man, helped raise his son and began a career as a computer programmer/analyst for the government. I retired from government service in 1997 and returned to where I grew up to be near my family. I have reached a place of peace and contentment and look forward to finishing out my life surrounded by family and friends. I have lived many years (I was born in 1936…..you do the math!!) and I have never regretted the decision to change my body to match my mind. It was the right decision…..for me.

I thank you, dear Karen, for the opportunity to write this short bio piece for your web site. I hope it will be of interest to some of your site visitors and, perhaps, help them in their own journeys of discovery. You are a blessing to us all and a guiding light in a sometimes dark world. You are golden.

Terry Noel's courageous transformational journey of enlightenment provides such wonderful motivational inspiration to many of us gals who have followed her incredible pioneering life story in the 1960's print media through the "dark years" before the vast informational resources of the internet. Ms. Terry Noel is a simply lovely, most elegant lady. She is a treasured gift to have as a personal Midwestern USA neighbor. It's a delightful pleasure just knowing and sharing her remarkable wisdom, loving kindness, and trusted friendship. Thank You dear Terry for being one of my special, inspirational role-models and life mentors. - Mrs. KAREN SERENITY

Dr. Marci has a adorable Son, Tom (pictured above), who she loves dearly. Dr. Marci Bowers moved to Trinidad, Colorado in 2003, helping to fill a critical gap in the local medical community which had lacked a board certified OB/GYN for several years. She is a 1980 MD Graduate of the University of Minnesota, and served her residency in OB/GYN at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Moving from the Seattle area in 2003, where her career included a stint as OB/GYN Chair at Providence Medical Center, Dr. Bowers remains committed to her Obstetrics and Gynecology career as she broadens her medical horizons in Trinidad. Dr. Bowers was named one of America's Best Doctors by the 2002-2003 American Research Council, and is a 2003 Member-Elect to the prestigious European Academy of Sciences - joining a select group of just over 500 International members, including some 38 Nobel Laureates! Dr. Bowers brings a diverse set of interests and backgrounds to her work. Committed to healthy living (she is a vegetarian), she is interested in alternative health solutions to compliment more traditional medical techniques.

Dr. Bowers Philosophy is stated as: We are committed to providing the highest quality medical care with compassion, sincerity and a sense of humor. We bring a human touch to the medical profession, healing in a loving atmosphere that nurtures trust and promotes healthy living. We provide modern medical care and up-to-date guidance to allow you to make optimal personal choices. We ask that you become an active participant in your own health care. Most importantly, we believe in the ideals of diversity....that the Future is about the blending of race, religion, culture, food, language, sexuality, and gender - taking the best from each and making a stronger whole. We believe that God's peace begins with respect for each and every living soul, and that the animal kingdom is included in that Creed.

Dr. Marci Bowers is a socially and spiritually aware, compassionate, intelligent, loving human being and gifted healer. She continues positively affecting and touching many souls through her state-of-the-art medical practice. May the universe continue guiding, nurishing and abundantly blessing her. - Mrs. KAREN SERENITY

Leslie Townsend was one of the featured women in the 2006 LOGO Cable Network documentary, "Beautiful Daughters,” a look at the making of a transgender version of “The Vagina Monologues,” displaying positive images of successful trans-women and their stories.

Leslie lives life to the fullest. She is loved and respected by her family and friends. Throughout her life, she has achieved many goals including working as a model, getting married and entertaining audiences as a stand-up comedienne. However, all the while, Leslie has been hiding a secret about her past. Always fearful of being rejected and ostracized if the truth came to light, Leslie kept her past just that, the past. But secrets weigh heavy on her mind and after years of lies and covering her tracks through career pursuits and relationships, she has decided to tell the truth about her transsexual history and the struggle to live with the legacy of her decision.

Leslie's story follows the journey of a child in confusion, an adolescent in turmoil and a young adult, who embarks on a quest for wholeness. It is a story of breaking gender barriers and of crossing the chasm from male to female. Leslie had her SRS at age 23 in 1983 with Dr. Stanley H. Biber at Trinidad, Colorado's Mount San Rafael Hospital. Ms. Townsend's early informational inspirations included the pioneering transsexuals, Renee Richards, Canary Conn and the often featured transsexual women on the popular, groundbreaking 1970's Phil Donahue syndicated television program.

Ms. Townsend has worked as a model, Actress and Stand-up comedienne. Now with the publication of her autobiography "Hidden in Plain Sight," she ventures into a new arena as author with a candid look at her past. Always an entertainer, Leslie embraces her new role of educating through her personal appearances and college lectures.

In August, 2006 Leslie Townsend relocated from Houston, Texas to her hometown near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to be closer to her family. Her relationships with them continue to flourish. Leslie and her father are moving forward in their relationship as well, trying to heal from past wounds.

Leslie's career in real estate development continues to grow. She travels monthly to Houston, Texas where she assists with the development of both interior and exterior design. Her company is expanding rapidly with three more development projects in the pipeline. Now that she is settling in Philadelphia, Leslie is pursuing opportunities to develop projects in the Northeast as well.

Leslie's career as a model and actress over the course of the last twenty years has included runway and print work along with some commercial and television work as well. The entertainment field is one in which Leslie still feels passionately and she is actively pursuing modeling and acting jobs with a local agency.

Since going public in 2003, Leslie has come to embrace her transgender history and to let go of the shame that haunted her for many years. Her involvement in Beautiful Daughters gave her a sense of fulfillment that has motivated her to make an even bigger difference in the transgender community.

To that end, in fall of 2006 the University of Pennsylvania announced the start of the Leslie Townsend Fund to benefit transgender students. This announcement marks an important milestone in Leslie's career and life. It has always been her wish to help students who are not only struggling with the rigors of academic life, but also facing an even bigger challenge within themselves.

The Leslie Townsend Fund:

As a teenager in deep turmoil about my gender identity, thoughts of going to college took a backseat to the immediate concerns in my mind. My parents would ask me about what career I wanted to pursue. They pushed the issue about attending college. I never gave them a solid answer because, for one thing, they knew nothing about my “problem” at that time and because I didn’t know what I wanted as a career. All I knew was that I wanted to be a girl. Nothing else could even enter my mind I was so consumed with this secret. I was supposed to be female. The question was how I was going to make that happen.

I lived in a time, the late seventies, when going to college and transitioning at the same time never seemed to be an option. I would have had no support system. The odds would have been stacked against me. I would have certainly faced ridicule and maybe even violence. The choice I made was to leave home and attend the school of hard knocks while at the same time becoming a woman. It was a struggle that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Though I was fulfilling one dream, I was paying the price in terms of living a life on the fringes and isolating myself from “normal” society. In the end, I reached womanhood, but never pursued a continuing education.

Today, I see that things are changing in positive ways for young people who want to transition at a young age and also attend college. In this way they can get the education they deserve while living the life they want in order to be their true selves. This is the purpose of The Leslie Townsend Fund, which benefits transgendered students attending the University of Pennsylvania. With your support, we can make a real difference in the lives of these young people. Together we can help them be themselves and pursue life with the confidence and positive self-image that is so important.

~ Leslie Townsend

Leslie's career and life have been both rewarding and challenging. Her many accomplishments in the past however were not fully gratifying due to the painful secrets which tainted each success. Leslie's brave and bold choice to reveal her transgender history have not only released many of the troubled demons which plagued her life for so many years, but it has brought with it, a stronger sense of self and confidence that makes the challenges going forward manageable and welcomed.

BIO: Leslie Townsend grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was during her early teen years that Leslie came to realize who she needed to be in order to become whole. After leaving home at the age of nineteen, her life took many twists and turns in the pursuit of womanhood that included drugs and prostitution.

After having her surgery at the age of twenty-three, Leslie had a difficult time letting go of the shame and rejection she had received from her friends and family. Realizing that she could blend in to "normal" society, Leslie kept her past a secret and lived in stealth for twenty years. Over the course of those years, Leslie pursued other careers such as modeling, secretarial work, bartending, stand-up comedy and many others all in an attempt to shake the past and move forward. It was an elusive quest. Fortunately for Leslie, she came to point in her life where she decided not to hide any longer. She made the decision to come out and tell her story. First she penned her autobiography Hidden in Plain Sight. Then, she began her involvement with Beautiful Daughters.

Over the past three years, Leslie has continued to move forward in life with a newfound sense of pride and confidence in her life and accomplishments. Over the years, Leslie has renewed the relationships with her family and they have become very close. Recently, she moved back to her hometown to be closer to her family. Leslie is already laying the groundwork for her commitment to the trans community.

As a newly elected board member of The Attic Youth Center in Philadelphia, Leslie will have the chance to help empower youth in a way that she never could have before. She has also started a scholarship fund at the University of Pennsylvania to benefit transgender students. Leslie continues to speak about her journey at colleges and youth groups.

Leslie's interest in the real estate business became a reality in 2004 when she and her business partner started their own real estate development company, building condominiums and town-homes. Leslie's life has come full circle and she is finding the success and happiness she deserves.

Ms. Leslie Townsend's poignant story of courage and adversity is one of the most realistically recorded accounts of transsexual transition ever published. Her honest, openly candid, often gritty, unvarnished, real-life biography "Hidden in Plain Sight," profoundly touches many similar cords within my own heart and spirit. I sincerely thank Ms. Townsend for sharing her moving, challenging life story of a totally assimilated transsexual woman successfully living and functioning in deep-woodworked-stealth for many years. Leslie Townsend has followed a uniquely enlightened life path less travelled and is now assisting many souls with her altruistic "Leslie Townsend Fund." She has successfully conquered many of her personal demons and confidently walks in life's flow. - Mrs. KAREN SERENITY

Being born a man didn't stop Jirawat Puboonam from being a loving maternal presence in the lives

of her adopted children, or stretching the boundaries of what it means to be a family in today's world.

Story by KRITTIYA WONGTAVAVIMARN

Jirawat Puboonam was not born a woman but when the 64-year-old talks about her children, it's clear that being a "mother" has given her life many meaningful moments.

Jirawat is a male-to-female transsexual, or katoey in Thailand. Living full-time as a woman, she's also the faithful wife to a 44-year-old husband and a devoted mother of three adopted children who were placed with her soon after they were born.

The first adopted child, Pornprapa Puboonam or Oui, now 21, arrived in 1984. Her biological mother was a teenage next-door neighbor who begged Jirawat to be a foster parent for the infant.

Thirteen-year-old Bunchoo Kerd-date, or Benz, followed the older sister eight years later. He was also the product of an unwanted pregnancy from another next-door neighbor.

The youngest, a two-and-a-half-year-old boy, Nattapong Promdang, or Bank, joined the family two years ago. He was abandoned by an imprisoned father and a careless mother and grandmother who lived nearby.

Because of the circumstances, Jirawat and her husband, Son Kerd-date, have taken in the three children as if they were their own and in the process have forged a new notion of "family". Coming from different "blood and guts", the five people are held altogether by bonds of love and affection under the same roof in a place called the Rong Poon community in Huay Kwang district.

After she adopted the first child, Jirawat realized that her original gender had not suppressed her maternal instincts, she said.

For her, being a mother has nothing to do with biology, but with the sobering responsibility of nurturing little souls. It's less about giving them toys and more about preparing them for a strong, secure life, she said.

"I have never seen being a katoey as an obstacle that makes me incapable of being a mother. That has always been who I am and what I'm proud of," said Jirawat, dressed in a smart suit, her features highlighted by make-up.

"They are my children and they have truly brought boundless joy to my life. I like to have children around and love to hear them call me 'mum', to give me hugs and kisses - something that was missing in my own childhood," said Jirawat, generally known in the community as "Phi Koon".

Jirawat is the product of a broken home. She was alienated from her family, the result of her showing a tendency towards a "ladyboy" nature. At 11, she was kicked out of the family after both her parents passed away. At that time, Jirawat was all by herself with the stigma of having a woman's soul trapped in a man's body.

Unlike many who slid down dark, dangerous paths because of a "bad childhood", the memory of her own traumatic past made Jirawat want to build a warm, loving home.

"My parents were farmers with eight children, so I rarely got the attention I needed from them. Neither did I receive warmth from my brothers and sisters," she recalled. "Some even said that I shouldn't have been born as a human being. They called me a queer, a freak, beat me up and pushed me around so much that I had to run away from home.

"I found it unbearable to be hungry for love and acceptance I had never received. So now that I have my own children, even if they don't carry my blood, I try to raise them with warmth and tenderness, protecting them as much as I can," she said.

Parenthood, however, wasn't part of her plans. In 1983, Jirawat and her husband decided to build their lives together with love, commitment and awareness of their shared responsibilities. Then a teenage girl showed up at their door asking for help with a baby she could not keep. Knowing she would face disagreement and criticism, Jirawat took the baby girl in.

"My husband and I have always loved children and we knew that the happiest moments would be when we were surrounded by people we loved and who loved us in return - meaning a family," she said. "Still, there were doubts as to whether it was appropriate for us to bring up children."

Some neighbors said her daughter might have difficulties with her personal and psychological development not to mention problems with her social and peer relationships.

"I was often asked, 'Aren't you afraid that your child will grow up and become queer?' and "Won't your child be teased by school friends?" she said. "But I have always believed that I have the full parental abilities to raise emotionally and mentally-healthy children, just like ordinary parents."

Despite the mistrust and skepticism of people around her, the accidental mother said she experienced much joy and happiness after taking on the responsibility of caring for a new life.

In the beginning, she spent hours with the new love of her life, learning what it took to be a mother, just as her baby was learning to crawl, she said.

"It was like moving into a new landscape. I had no idea when the maternal instinct developed in my soul. But all I knew was that I felt uplifted every time I held the little baby tight in my arms, rocking her with her breath falling gently against my chest," said Jirawat, flashing a big smile as she talked about her eldest daughter.

"When she slept, I slept, and I had to be careful not to lay on top of her and to always protect her from falling off the bed. When she woke up sobbing during the night, I got up too. When she was hungry, I fed her. When she emptied her bowels, I cleaned up after her."

After gaining experience raising her first child, Jirawat opened her arms to other children in need. To reaffirm her identity as a female, as well as a mother, she underwent gender reassignment surgery so that she could belong to the sex she thought she should have in the first place.

Apart from having a loving family - proof that not all transsexuals are promiscuous and won't settle down to long-term relationships - Jirawat intends to shake up some long-standing discriminations: The taboo against men having a feminine side, or the myth that cross-dressers must remain closeted or be driven out of the family in order for that family to continue functioning as "normal", things that led to the trauma Jirawat experienced as a child.

Jirawat doesn't hide her gender status from her children. She does not have a problem dealing with her neighbors in the community either, she said.

When Oui and Benz reached their teen years, Jirawat decided to tell them the truth about her identity. To her surprise, her children saw nothing wrong with their mother's gender, she said.

"Both of them think that transsexualism is natural and have never asked me why they couldn't stay with their "real mothers," Jirawat said proudly. "I think it's better for all of us to live an open life and not hide the uniqueness of our family."

Her children agree. They said their self-esteem does not differ from that of children who have heterosexual parents.

"I find nothing strange about my family. And I've never wanted to know the woman who gave birth to me because I've got the 'real' one already," said Oui, a junior student at Ramkhamhaeng University.

"I don't care whether I'm a child of a same-sex couple or a child of a single parent. I only know that my best friend, who is so loving and caring, is my mother and I'm proud to be her child."

"Mum always gives me lots of love, care and attention, too much sometimes," added the second child, Benz, laughing, "But I know that she loves me. I've never thought mum was actually born male because she has always been soft and gentle. She always tells us - brothers and sisters - to love and take care of one another because we are family."

Being a parent is no easy task, especially to children from different backgrounds, Jirawat admitted. She maintains, however, that as long as the essential ingredients are there - affection, tenderness and devotion - the family will remain warm.

"To me, a family is not defined only by bloodlines," she said. "My family might be unconventional, but it does function and conform to what I believe are traditional values."

All parents have hopes and dreams for their children and so does she.

"My greatest hope for my children is to see them grow up into beautiful people, to see them becoming diligent and nice to other people," she said. "Most importantly and perhaps simply as well, I want my kids to be happy. I think that would be more than enough."

Jirawat Puboonam's inspirational life story provides such a lovely, beautifully natural example of a mother's loving devotion for her adopted family along with being a faithful wife to her wonderfully sharing, supportive husband. - Mrs. KAREN SERENITY

Kenneth F. Ulane, a native of Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, learned to fly in 1959, and became a licensed pilot in 1964, serving in the United States Army from that time until 1968 with a record number of combat missions in Vietnam for which Ulane received the Air Medal with Eight Clusters.

Upon discharge in 1968, Ulane began flying for Eastern. For a decade, Ulane was a male pilot with an excellent employment record at Eastern Airlines.

Ulane flew Boeing 727 aircraft with Eastern and progressed from second to first officer, and also served as a flight instructor, logging over 8,000 flight hours. Ulane was diagnosed a transsexual in 1979. She explained that although embodied as a male, she felt like a female from early childhood. Ulane first sought psychiatric and medical assistance in 1968 while in the military.

Later, Ulane began taking female hormones as part of her treatment and eventually developed breasts from the hormones. In 1980, she underwent "Sex Reassignment Surgery". After the surgery, Illinois issued a revised birth certificate indicating Ulane was female, and the FAA certified her for flight status as a female. Eastern, however, refused to re-employ Ulane as a pilot. The airline contended that Ulane was too much of a psychiatric risk to vest with the responsibility of piloting a commercial aircraft.

In 1981 Karen Ulane filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

In a bench trial the U.S. District Court held that Eastern had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against Ms. Ulane as a transsexual and as a female. The District Judge first found under count II that Eastern discharged Ulane because she was a transsexual, and that Title VII prohibits discrimination on this basis.

On August 29, 1984 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Reversed the District Court's ruling and relied on reasons to support its holding that Title VII did not protect transsexuals. The Appeals Court held that the word "sex" in Title VII meant a man or woman, not an individual suffering from a sexual-identity disorder.

Since Ulane was not discriminated against as a female, and since Title VII is not so expansive in scope as to prohibit discrimination against transsexuals, the US Court of Appeals Reversed the order of the Trial Court and remand for entry of judgment in favor of Eastern on count I and dismissal of count II.

The full case was actually sent back to the lower court for re-trial on a couple of issues whether Eastern had acted properly in terminating Karen Ulane. Rather than fight it further and take the risk of losing again, Eastern Airlines (before it went bankrupt and out of business), settled with Karen for several hundreds of thousands of dollars. In reality Karen Ulane won her case, but lost her pilot's job. Subsequently other airlines have not terminated other pilots because of their transsexuality.

She used a portion of her settlement funds to start a flower shop in Wheaton, Illinois and also operated an aviation equipment business in Aurora, Illinois. Karen was also in the process of building her own airplane, a single-engine GP-4, out of wood and fiberglass.

At approximately 11 a.m., Central Daylight Time, on May 22, 1989, Karen Frances Ulane, 47, a decorated military pilot, died in a plane crash along with Arthur Lutz, 72, of Barrington, Illinois the co-pilot; a "pilot's pilot" who had been flying since World War II, and Paul Kilman, 56, of Aurora, Illinois chairman of the Aurora Airport Advisory Board, who was along for the ride. The crash occurred while the Aurora, Illinois based twin-engine DC-3 airplane was on a training and checkout flight before a charter. The tragic accident occurred near DeKalb, Illinois.

Witnesses on the ground said they heard the DC-3's engines sputter and saw the airplane bank sharply, stalling and spinning before it crashed into a cornfield and exploded about five miles south of DeKalb. The pilot of another airplane saw the DC-3 careen into a spin before hitting the ground.

The airplane, originally built in 1944, had recently undergone extensive renovation and recertification by the Federal Aviation Administration for use in charter passenger and cargo service. The NTSB reported that Ulane "failed to provide adequate supervision while training the co-pilot and allowed the aircraft to enter a stall/spin, then did not provide adequate remedial action to properly recover from the spin."

Karen Ulane's mother, now in her late 80's, was devastated by Karen's loss but is dealing with it these years later.

Karen Ulane's unbelievably challenging life story continues to inspire and motivate. Her incredible courage, determination, and feminine spirit still stands as a powerful testimonial to the sheer tenacity and dedication of our early transsexual pioneers. Karen Ulane's brave, self-sacrifice and her difficult, painful court trials, have deeply touched and moved many souls. - Mrs. KAREN SERENITY

Amy on her Wedding Day in California. Amy is a delightfully pleasant person. She's an talented, artistic, loving, successful woman to her children and her loving husband. Amanda enthusiastically participates in special events and women's groups all over the region where she lives, where she is a well known and liked member of the community!

Amy's Life Reflections
Copyright © 2004 Amy. All rights reserved.

I don't really consider myself a success, but more of a survivor - someone with strong enough will and determination to have overcome one of the world's most difficult challenges in life, and is doing just fine. If the measure of success however, is simply overcoming such a challenge and moving on to live a normal life, then I am successful.or maybe lucky, or somehow blessed, I really don't know. What I do know is that prior to my transition I thought all of this to be inconceivable - absolutely impossible. Not going to happen - EVER. Ha!

Decades of powerful denial and suppression mixed with growingly intense gender dysphoria created a tightly wound psychological spring on the clock of a bomb that was destined to go off when it reached it's flashpoint...and so it did, changing my life and the life of those I loved forever. But rather than digress into a biography, I would like to focus on what all of this has meant to me, and what I learned along the way.

I found that I had more power over my own life than I had ever imagined possible. I experienced great losses but learned to find open doors leading to places I never could have imagined myself being able to go in a million years. I discovered that by focusing on the positive things I had in life I was able to make my life better, feel happier and do the same for those around me. I learned that there is no such thing as "can't" - when someone says this they usually mean they won't, or they don't know how. I learned I can find out how to do just about anything if I set my mind to it. I discovered that I am the architect of my own destiny - we all are.

I have no regrets other than the painfully unintentional hurt I inflicted upon others by having been unable to fight against transsexuality any longer, and not admitting or recognizing that it was there to begin with - even to myself. I spent decades in my own internal psychological quicksand, but don't regret it because I treasure my family and former friends along with the memories of all the good times we had along the way. (Though to the young person I would say I believe that transitioning earlier gives you a better opportunity for damage control in your life as well as a far larger blank slate to map out your life). I also feel very good in knowing I did absolutely the best I possibly could have in dealing with something so challenging and hard to comprehend, let alone accept.

Today, I am a happily married woman living a rather unremarkable life with my husband in yuppie suburbia on the West Coast of the United States. I participate regularly in local ladies groups and dabble in several hobbies and projects to keep myself entertained. I have a loving family, kids, step kids, pets, home and am well liked in the local community. Living life and enjoying life is a measure of success I suppose, though often simply the journey is the destination.

I liken my life to that of the Phoenix, having gone down in flames only to arise in another form, more powerful than ever before, with wisdom and new potential beyond measure. Transsexuality brings something positive to everyone who experiences it - opportunity. What you do with your opportunity will determine your destiny..seize it and do the best you can with what you have, life has a way of working out in ways you might never expect!

As Amy has shared with her friends...

"No one could have ever convinced

me when I was first starting out on

my challenging journey years ago,

how normal my new life as a woman

and loving wife could be today!

I've found joy, peace, love and

so much more! My life is wonderful.

Amy is a intelligent, considerate, honest, down-to-earth, sharing "role-model" for the many souls who've been lovingly touched by her gentle wisdom, creative humor, and genuine warm kindness. Today, she lives a most "normal" and happy suburban life with her close family and supportive, attentive husband. Amanda originally met her darling husband through her own personal website which she had online for several years. We sincerely thank her for courageously sharing her motivational, inspirational story on this "positive thinking" website. - Mrs. KAREN SERENITY

All Information presented on this KarenSerenity.com Website is Copyright © 2003-2008 Karen Serenity, KarenSerenity.com Positive Thinking Transsexual Women, Regular Women with Exceptional Lives!, Karen Serenity Report, Seek the Positive in all things and you will find it, Heal the World with Your Love. All rights reserved. Copyrighted materials are reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of U.S. copyright law (17 USC 107). Such use is intended for nonprofit educational purposes only. All rights remain with the original copyright holder. Trademarks and brand names listed on KarenSerenity.com are the property of their respective holders. All information and contents contained within this KarenSerenity.com website is subject to change without advance notice.

We thank the many outstanding women who are listed on these webpages. It's our sincere hope that all visitors will respect their personal privacy, anonymity, lives, and space. The brave, dedicated, positive thinking women listed on these pages have overcome extreme difficulties, hardships, pain, and loss, to achieve their current joyful, loving, spiritual, fulfilling lives. Reading and learning about their personal challenges and triumphs, you begin to understand the great trials and self-sacrifice these genuinely courageous women have undergone in order to have achieved the successful lives they are presently experiencing and enjoying. As time progresses, a percentage of the women listed on this KarenSerenity.com website may desire to move into low-profile Stealth living, and may decide leave this website. At the same time, other women having inspiring, interesting stories to share on the Internet may decide they would like to be listed here for a while, and will be added to this Website.

Any additional legitimate contributions or confirmed submissions to these pages(i.e. photos, stories, biographies, interviews, information, articles, website links, data, etc.) will be gratefully accepted, acknowledged and welcomed. If you're a Post-Operative Female who'd like to share your own hard won "Transitional Life Story" of challenge, struggle and triumph to assist & benefit others here on this equal opportunity website, we sincerely welcome women who've successfully transitioned and would like hearing from you.

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This website presents affirmative examples of positive thinking, successful, inspirational, pathfinding, male-to-female transsexual role models and motivational real life stories of post-operative, MTF transsexual women, providing Inspiration, Enlightenment and Insight. This Website also deals with the subjects and topics of sex change, sex reassignment surgery, SRS, gender reassignment surgery, GRS, post-operative transsexual women, post-op TS women, transsexual females, transsexual women, successful transsexual women, successful TS women, successful married post-op transsexual women, intersexual, intersexed women, positive thinking, pathfinding, inspirational, motivational, transsexual women successes, MTF, M2F transsexuals, transsexualism, transsexuality, transgender, transgenderism.

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If you are conducting a internet search in an attempt to locate more Information about or concerning the subject or topic of Sex Changes, Transsexual Women, Transsexual Women News, Transsexual News, Transsexual Females, Intersexed Women, Successful, Inspirational, Motivational Transsexual Women, you might try searching with these listed terms. Transsexual, Transsexual Women, Transsexual Post-Op Women, Transsexual Post-Operative Women, Positive Thinking Transsexual Women, Successful Transsexual Women, Pathfinding Transsexual Women, Pathfinding Post-Op Transsexual Women, Post-Operative Transsexual Women, Successful Post-Op Transsexual Women, Successful Post-Operative Transsexual Women, Inspirational Transsexual Women, Inspirational Post-Op Transsexual Women, Inspirational Post-Operative Transsexual Women, Motivational Transsexual Women, Motivational Post-Op Transsexual Women, Motivational Post-Operative Transsexual Women, Single Transsexual Women, Single Post-Op Transsexual Women, Single Post-Operative Transsexual Women, Successful Single Transsexual Women, Successful Single Post-Op Transsexual Women, Successful Single Post-Operative Transsexual Women, Married Transsexual Women, Married Post-Op Transsexual Women, Married Post-Operative Transsexual Women, Transsexual Women Success, Post-Op Transsexual Women Success, Post-Operative Transsexual Women Success, Cincinnati Transsexual Women Friends Group, Transsexual Role Models, Single Post-Op Male-to-Female Transsexual Women, Single Post-Operative Male-2-Female Transsexual Women, MTF, M2F, Karen Serenity, KarenSerenity.com, Karen Serenity Report, Transsexual Women News, Lynn Conway, Becky Allison, M.D., Marci Bowers, M.D., Jamie Kaufman, M.D., Tommie Lauer, M.D., Margaret Stumpp, Ph.D., Terry Noel, Leslie Townsend, Karen Ulane, Mianne Bagger, Helen Hill, Monica Green, Christie Lee Littleton, Mrs. Christie Lee Littleton-Van de Putte, Michelle E. Koorsen, Jerry & Lynn Montgomery, Montgomery Medical & Psychological Institute, Inc., Annie Richards, Second Type Woman, Diane Hutchinson, Sister Mary Elizabeth, Joanna Clark, Phobe Smith, The TS Voice Newsletter, The Transsexual Voice Newsletter, Canary Conn, Merv Griffin Show, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Norman Vincent Peale, Dr. Leo Buscaglia, John Bradshaw, Robert Schuller, The Hour of Power, Les Brown, Loretta LaRoche, Marianne Williamson, Zig Ziglar, Transsexualism, Transsexuality, Sex Reassignment, Gender Reassignment Surgery, SRS, GRS, Sex Change, Gender Change, Transgender, Transgenderism, Intersexual, Intersexed, Intersexual Woman, Intersexed Woman, TS Women, Successful TS Women, Inspirational TS Women, Motivational TS Women, Post-Op TS Women, Post-Operative TS Women, Transsexual Women Success, TS Women Success, Post-Op TS Women Success, Post-Operative Women Success, Transsexual Women Ma