Sincerely Sophie
Monday, August 27, 2012
By DANA LARSEN / Pilot-Tribune Editorhttp://www.stormlakepilottribune.com/story/1887143.html
"You have to learn to be a real person before you can learn to be a real man or a real woman."
Sophie Prell is one of few people who can say they've been all of the above.
Sophie - or Gaylen, as she was known through her high school years in Aurelia - was an active, involved boy, and still today she has fond memories of clowning around with her stepbrothers, the car rides to basketball games, proms, wearing the mascot costume for football games.
But one memory differs from those of all she grew up with - this boy's dawning realization that inside, he was not a boy at all.
Gaylen went on to Iowa State and more success, becoming among other things a playwright and well-read opinion columnist for the Iowa State Daily newspaper. But at ISU, after his freshman year, Gaylen also became Sophia, the identity he chose as he began to dress and act as a female. She found herself as a lightningrod for controversy at times.
Life still hasn't been all roses.
