NEED TO KNOW
- At 15, Blake Butler from Adelaide, SA, realised she was transgender after discovering a YouTube video.
- After school, Blake began transitioning and documenting her journey online.
- She underwent extensive gender-affirming surgery in South Korea.
- Blake says her confidence has soared and her family now accepts her.
Scrolling through YouTube, I came across an account belonging to a man transitioning to be a woman. She called herself Gigi Gorgeous.
Instantly curious, I clicked on the videos with my mouth agape.
“This is me,” I whispered, shaking my head in awe.
Just then, my mum, Trina, knocked on my door.
“Blake, what’re you doing?” she asked.
I quickly closed my iPad screen and smiled at her.
“Nothing Mum,” I said sweetly.
It was 2013 and I was 15.
Throughout primary school, I’d grown up as a regular boy who enjoyed playing footy and PlayStation with my mates.
It wasn’t until I started getting bullied in high school that I realised I was different.
They called me “gay” and many horrible homophobic slurs associated with it. It hadn’t crossed my mind that I was gay, but I didn’t enjoy the taunts and tried to tone down my flamboyancy.
Thankfully, all the girls liked me, especially when I secretly started experimenting with makeup and wigs in my room and realised I was good at it.
For school formals and parties, the popular girls invited me round to theirs to do their makeup for them.
“You’ve got a real gift,” one said.
It meant the boys in our grade left me alone, but kids older or younger laughed and pointed at me. I walked the long way to class just to avoid them.
Problem was, I didn’t feel gay. Instead, I felt like a girl trapped in a boy’s body.
When I stumbled on Gigi’s YouTube channel, I realised I was transgender.
My parents divorced when I was six and I stayed every second weekend with my dad, Darryn, who I was very close to.
One day in 2015, we were out driving and the news came on the radio.
“American sports and TV star Bruce Jenner has announced he’s transitioning to become a woman,” the newsreader announced.
Dad shook his head in disapproval.
My heart sank because I was planning on transitioning myself one day. I knew it’d be hard for Dad to understand, given he was a bloke’s bloke and a Christian.
When I finished school, it was time. I wanted my outside to look how I felt on the inside.
I moved out of home, grew my hair and started wearing women’s clothes. At 184cm tall and weighing 95kg, I had a bit of fat on my chest that I could squeeze into a bra and used duct tape to push them up.
Thankfully, my name was already unisex so I didn’t have to change it.
Copying Caitlyn Jenner’s blog I Am Cait, I created my own called I Am Blake, explaining that I was transitioning and why.
I waited for my family to say something, but no-one did.
On a trip over to Melbourne in 2017, I discussed it with my sister Zoe, 22.
“I want everyone to start referring to me as their daughter and sister,” I said.
“Write a letter explaining that,” she suggested.
So I did.
No-one in my family actually said anything afterwards but they started referring to me as a “she” and that made me happy.
They accepted it.
I became an award-winning make-up artist and as my business grew, I started saving up.
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In early 2019, I decided I wanted facial feminisation surgery. I did a lot of research into doing it in Australia, and places like Turkey and Thailand.
In the end, the reviews from ID Hospital in South Korea showed the best results, so I chose that.
I flew over in April 2019 and posted video blogs about the whole process, including the surgery itself, on my YouTube channel.
During the six-hour procedure, I had my jaw made more angular, my nose made smaller and thinner, my forehead reduced in size and facial laser liposuction.
I stayed in hospital that night, and spent the next 16 days in a hotel going for regular check-ups in hospital.
I had no pain and loved South Korea. Everywhere I looked, people had bandaged faces from surgery, so I explored local markets and ate delicious food.
When I got home, my clients were in awe.
“You look so beautiful,” one said.
My video blogs went viral and had nearly 2 million views. It was such a success, the surgery tourism company I went through, Docfinderkorea, reimbursed me the $37,000 I’d paid!
Around then, I lost weight through diet and exercise, went on hormones to become more feminine and a year later had sexual reassignment surgery.
Shortly afterwards, I met my lovely boyfriend.
He was supportive when I said I was going back to Korea to have a boob job and more facial surgery because some of the previous work had drooped slightly and needed redoing.
I went in September 2023 and vlogged about it, and again Docfinderkorea paid for it.
I’ve now had $87,000 worth of plastic surgery and I’m officially addicted.
“You don’t need any more surgery,” my boyfriend scolded, when I started talking about having another boob job to make them even bigger.
“But I love it,” I laughed.
Next, I planned to have vocal feminisation surgery.
Going under the knife has changed my life. My confidence has soared.
I can’t walk into my local shopping centre without being wolf whistled at.
Hilariously, some of the male bullies from my high school have messaged me on Snapchat asking me out on a date. I just ignore them.
Being trans isn’t easy and I go through depressive periods, but haters are always gonna hate.
I remind myself what famous drag queen RuPaul always says; “If they ain’t paying your bills, pay those b*tches no mind.”
These days, my boyfriend and I regularly go for dinner with my dad.
“I’m proud of you Blake,” Dad told me recently.
That made me so happy.
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