Looking at my Facebook profile that I've had for about 10 years I realize that seeing some of my old pictures feels kind of weird, sometimes I feel like I'm looking at someone else.  I'm curious, what do y'all think about old photos of yourself?

It feels incredibly weird and uncomfortable

I don't generally look at old pictures of myself. I don't relate to the person in the picture anymore. It feels like a completely different person. Hugs
Mariah

It's kinda weird for me. I'm ok to look at some now prolly because I really feel like I don't look like that anymore. I too feel like I'm almost an entirely different person now.

Mostly I don't even recognize that person. Whenever I look at pictures or videos from before transition, it actually takes me a second before it "clicks" in my head and I realize "Oh my god, that was ME. Like, that was the body that I used to wake up in every single day." And I just want to give myself the biggest hug because I love myself so much now, and can't even imagine being trapped back in that body.

The discomfort mostly comes not from realizing that that used to be me, but more from having no pictures from my youth that actually do look like me. I've so quickly forgotten that I was ever male in the first place, that it's painful to realize that I have no pictures of myself as a teenager, or a little girl, or any of those growing stages of life, because I was physically male at the time.

In my mind, I've always been me, and I've always seen myself this way. And yet in my actual pictures, the woman that I am suddenly pops out of nowhere as a 28-year-old.

I was stalking my mother's facebook page a few weeks ago and I found the very last picture of the old me in existence. I was like "holy crap, he ugly" Also, it was kinda creepy cause it looked like i was asleep in the picture. I decided to save the picture to remind myself how pretty I am now when i'm feeling down.

 I avoided having my picture taken since I was about 12 not even class photos. There is only one photo of myself as a teenager that I know of and that is my graduation picture, which I submitted too to appease my mother. Still have a hard time having pictures taken. Why can I see myself in the mirror but not in pictures? I wanted to post a picture of myself on face book and here since I have lost 210 lbs and been on hormones for 6 months but I still don't like the way I look.

Well since I am still pre everything, I cannot make any justified notations. Though, since I am living with my mother temporarily, I have come to despise some of my older pictures of me, especially with how it was in a nutshell, me watching over me while I sleep. Well with over ten pictures of the old me, ten of my brother, and other pictures of other family, pictures of me with my ex wife, etc... It gets tiring seeing all of that.

Well with some wiggle room of modifying the room around a bit, I was able to stow away a couple of my older pictures, cover the part of a few with other pictures and such. Much more bearable to not have basically myself creeping over me while I sleep on the futon. When my mom asked me if I was hiding the few pictures of me away, I simply told her I was not, but the new way the shelves were placed just didn't have enough space for them to be up. Aside from the fact I found a couple pictures of my grandparents and such which essentially replaced those, which in my opinion is much better grounds to have up.

Only time will tell if I will come to hate the old pictures especially with the changes I will be making in the near future. Besides the fact that unless I would be known to have the birth defect of being male, I would have my first 30 years of life essentially having not quite an existence in pictorial memories.

Kate <3

I just feel embarrassed. I look so awful and not at all like myself.

I am uncomfortable with pictures of me as a child.  But then I always have been because I always thought I looked weird then.  Even as a child I thought I looked weird.

But I'm not really uncomfortable at all with pictures of me as an adult.  I don't have all that many but the ones I do have remind me of the place and people where they were taken and those were all happy places in one way or another.

Maybe I'll feel differently later when I go further with this.  I haven't socially transitioned yet.  But I don't feel any kind of revulsion over my past or the past me.  I just feel relief and happiness now not having to deal with dysphoric depression and anxiety all the time.

I don't feel anything when I look at those old pictures. It was another life.

I only keep pictures of days when i was happy, + I'm normally in the pic with someone else. I try not to focus on the shape of my body etc anyway (plus I've had a string of awkward haircuts lol) and on what i was doing when it was taken instead. I really don't want to end up splitting my life in two.

There are 2 framed pictures of me down the stairs to the recreation room. One is of me at 18 in my full dress uniform and the other has my father's picture, medals and badges along with my picture, medals and badges. When I see my picture, it makes me feel uncomfortable and it feels like that it is of another person when I look at it. Hard to believe it was me. I have had people ask me if it is my brother's picture? You can see the look of surprise on their faces when they find out it was me.

If I had my way, I'd take them down but a friend of mine paid for the framing before I transitioned so I can't really remove them as uncomfortable they make me now and no way I'd let her know.

Love,
Clare

I'm not.  I totally own this thing.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it empowers me. Yes it makes me sad I was in such denial for so long, trying to be the macho man's man that was all a farce. I like to show before and after pics of things I've done (like restoring cars), although I haven't posted anything here of what I used to look like. I show my trans friends old pics and one said I "don't even look like a remotely distant relative". Old pictures also remind me what physical torture I went through as I sit here healing from a trachea shave.

And it is bizarre beyond imagine to look at a different person in the mirror, especially after FFS. Although now for the first time ever in my life I like myself and feel more at peace.

I'm definitely fine with the last 20 years of pictures because I have been very masculine and was often seen as male.  I am a year on T and although I am always seen as male, there is no one who knows me that would not recognize me.  Still, I don't think even if I start to look less and less like my female self that those pictures will bother me.

You have to go all the way back to my childhood for any touch of femininity.  With that said, my mother has this one large picture of the family when I was in the 7th grade with longish hair and a dress.  I never liked to wear dresses, but I had to for this picture.  It is very front and center in the family room.  I think I will ask her to remove it.  I didn't before because my deceased father is in it, plus I am not at her house very often (so it feels unfair to ask).  But, it makes me sick to my stomach when I see it.  I remember when my last girlfriend saw it I felt so humiliated and embarrassed (not that it bothered her in the slightest).

ok with it, but i cringe at all the stupid things and the way i used to act in the past.

On the poll I considering how I feel when I see old pictures of myself.    Well for one thing for the past 16 years I have taken pictures of my female self with my many digital cameras over the years.   I have used Webshots Screen Screensaver and Google Screensaver to put my pictures of myself over the years on my desktop and screensaver on my computer.   For 9 years, I transitioned in private and for the last 7 years I all anybody has seen me is my female self.

I have noticed through the years with my many pictures that there are pictures of me that will at one time look ugly and at others look nice depending on how I feel.   I don't have any butch pictures of myself on my computer.   When I see butch pictures of myself I am totally disassociated from them.

I went with other so here is my explanation: i have found that I can look at my pre-first puberty photos. Because even though I am dressed like a boy I remember loving some of my clothes and I can see how happy and bubbly I am. I am the goofy tomboy, always smiling and moving very much like me.

Post puberty photos well, as soon as the t hit so did the sadness and they take me back there too quick. The pain is palpable. I would rather not see those.

My photos from my late teens into my early thirties I can't really relate to. I have never been able to recognize that person and he looks so lost and hurt.

I do look at all of them though, just went through a huge stack for a video I am trying to make. A timeline vid. They remind me of why it is so important to keep following my truth. I don't and won't dwell on them but they do represent all the stages of my life. I am very happy now and they were all of me, from the experiences that made me who I am. I spent my life running from my truth and I just can't do that ever again. I have learned my lesson.

I have deleted or trashed all old pictures I have of myself - if I ever want to look at that (I doubt it), my mom has plenty.

I accidentally found one (the picture I uploaded to the student housing administration, they use it for identification purposes and I forgot to change it) recently, and looking at it made me feel horrible and sad for the person I see in the picture. My eyes were empty, my face expressionless, and I looked like an empty shell. Of course that also tells me how right it was for me to transition, but on the other hand it makes me depressed thinking of how long I let myself be in that state due to being in denial. So I prefer never seing pictures of my old self.