Over the past week I had to take care of some banking issues over the phone. Because Bethany is not my legal name yet I still have to use my birth name. Well in both conversations with two different banks neither of them thought that I was me. They both had asked if I was (male name's SO) and used female pronouns. And this was without even trying to sound feminine.

Sweet! Congratulations Bethany! 

Amy

Big gratz are in order there!

How long as it taken to get to that point?  I'm the other way round, changed my name legally but have a hard time getting through security when phoning the bank/credit card companies.  Though the tech support guy insisted that Paul had to call back to get the mobile app registration reset, he could not grasp the concept of having changed my name by deed poll and that there was no Paul anymore! You win some, you lose some I suppose...

It's hasn't taken long. I have not done any voice training other than working on it myself. But it was never very masculine.

Thats so fantastic and encouraging to hear! Did you have any formal voice coaching or anything? I am having a hard time changing my voice when I talk. When I sing, it's easy, but talking is a whole different story. It's so hard to talk feminine without sounding falsetto and fake. Any tips?

I had no training what so ever but my voice was never that deep to begin with.

Ahhhh I hope to achieve that level soon! My voice can be abnormally deep for my size. Don't even get me started when I have a cold/sore throat. I sound like Barry White!