Pre everything, what was it about your body that gave you confidence that you would be able to achieve your goals when you transitioned. 

High cheekbones?

Average height but small skeletal frame(the old thumb and and middle finger wrapped around the wrist bone test)?

Most of the skeletal markers for more estrogen as a fetus: pointer finger longer than ring, able to double cross legs with little manipulation; elbows carry angle, angled out when arms are strait down with palms facing forward.

Guess that's about it.

Small boned....even though I'm 6'1" my wrists are tiny
Small feet...size 11s are fairly common
Natural waist....
Long and slender hands...
Nice vocal range...makes for easy female voice

Hugs

Jen

Hmm.

Carry angle.
High cheek bones? I think so.
Small-ish feet? I'm size 9-10.
Prosody and resonance are naturally fem for me so the pitch rise was all I needed.
I'm short, 5'6" which is a decent female height
Low T in general so I ended up not having as much damage.

My pre-transition attributes = Liam Gallagher.

My height was 5`10"
My feet: US M7/W8.5/9
I wear size 0 or 2 while having 37" hips

The only real concerns I had were my nose size and shoulder breadth.

 Still breathing.

Ex-girlfriends saying to me - 'You're prettier than I am, b****'

:~D

I didn't have much confidence at all pre-transition. I didn't transition for 13 years post-puberty because I was worried that my body was unfixably masculine. I was large-built, 6'2" tall, had very large arms, a huge upper body, a big sloping guyish forehead, a receded hairline, a large chin, a large nose, and a strong jaw.

Transition timelines on Youtube gave me hope. People who looked just as masculine as I did, with enough time on hormones, eventually started looking feminine.

When I finally decided I was going to do it, what convinced me wasn't so much a belief that I could do it, it was realizing that at age 27 I was still at an age that these things could hypothetically change. If I waited any longer, though, it might be too late, and I'd definitely need surgery to correct them if they progressed any further. It was the fear of masculinizing any more than I already was that gave me the drive.

In terms of physical attributes that gave me some degree of hope, my shoulder bones were about the same width as my hip bones, I had a relatively low waist-hip ratio for someone of my weight, smallish hands and feet for someone of my height, and my frame size as measured with the classic wrist trick and elbow trick were only in the small-medium range. So even though I was overweight in all the wrong places, I realized that my bone structure wasn't as bad as I thought it was, so it gave me some glimmer of hope that the bulk was just muscles and fat, and thus hormones and dieting could work a miracle and melt all of that male bulk away.

Being alive was the most important attribute for me.  I'm not being flippant about the subject of this thread, but the simple truth was once I clearly understood I wasn't male I was set on transitioning no matter what I might look like.

pre transition and transitioning

Still waking up on the sunny side of the grass 

At 6ft tall, big boned, big hands, super extra large feet, super sized super orbital ridges, deeper then average male voice, and almost bald and balding since age 14 there was absolutely nothing physical that was an asset.

I had absolutely nothing going for me. Big hands, relatively hairy, big shoulders, guy face (except for high cheekbones), too tall, etc. I had nothing going for me except the will to transition, and the fact I was very receptive to the magic elixir of HRT with good genetics. Now I have scrawny hands, thin arms, wear a size small blouse, boobs, thin ribcage, hourglass shape, nice face, pretty nice ass, and my outlook on life is 1000 times better.

Great height of 5ft 7 inches, slim and now 133 lbs from 147lbs, small boned , shoes size male shoes 6 1/2.

All this did not matter as its the mental change that i needed to be who I am. HRT has changed me so much and the pic is before any surgery.

nice pic

I've never truly understood how I could possibly transition to a passable women, but I fully accept that it is possible because of all the successful transitions I've seen by others. It's amazing what some people have done, so anything's possible, even me.

Quote from: kittenpower on August 11, 2015, 02:01:21 PM
Pre everything, what was it about your body that gave you confidence that you would be able to achieve your goals when you transitioned.

Nothing Nada Zilch Zero.  ...and that was my peak of dysphoria.  I got older, hairier, balder, grosser and said "Now or never" and I couldn't say never.

My long, thick legs give me a lot of confidence. I wear short skirts to show them off.

The number 1 thing I always had going for me is that I looked feminine - I got told over and over over again that I had a "baby face" which I later realized meant that I had a feminine face. It caused me endless grief and bullying when I was young.

Positives: I have small wrists and ankles, nice legs, no body hair, a mostly unnoticeable adam's apple, no brow ridge, and I was told by numerous women that I had a nice butt which has responded well to HRT. I also have a fairly gender neutral voice. I wear a women's size 10 shoe.

Negatives: Large shoulders and arms from years of doing mechanical work, hair loss on the back of my head, a bit thick around the middle, my weight (185ish lbs), and a typical stocky male shaped build with a large upper torso. My age when I started HRT (around 50).

After a year HRT has taken care or reduced most of the negatives and has reinforced the positives.

None of this mattered though - I would have transitioned anyway. It was either transition or continue to drink myself to death.

I was bullied a lot when I was young because of my looks and I saw things rather gloomy and I couldn't believe that I could ever look like a normal human being. But in fact most of the bullying was because I did not look like and did not act like the boys my age.

I was always shorter than the average height and had smaller feet than others, I have female carrying angle and I was very thin and weak when I was young.
And I have fair skin, strong black hair, quite girly face and eyes.

There are a number of things that are far from ideal.

I started some extreme sports which brought a lot of muscle along so I was no longer thin and weak and my shoulders are broader than how I'd like them but I cannot change that now.
I have a fairly large ribcage, it is only visible from the side but I really don't like it and I have a sort and thick neck.
My feet are small but they are little wider than ideal and they are not really symmetric.
And of course I couldn't avoid voice changes and facial hair at puberty.

I needed a lot of positive feedback to be able to go outside as a girl and the funny thing is that people don't have that strange look in their eyes which they have when I'm out as a man. I guess I just fit in better as a woman, I just have to reach a stage where I can maintain the looks every day.