When I was five, long before I understood what the word 'gender' meant, I would always tell my mother that I wished I were a girl.

I can only imagine how much more fun it's going to be to play someone who shares my identity rather than having to contort myself to play a boy. I'm going to gun for those roles, be it a transgender female or a cisgender female.

My pronouns are she, her, and hers. I identify as female, specifically as a transgender female. And my name is Josie Totah.

I believe that I am transgender to help people understand differences. It allows me to gain perspective, to be more accepting of others, because I know what it feels like to know you're not like everyone else.

I believe that every family - it doesn't make a difference who you are or where you come from - deserves to have quality healthcare. It is a universal right. It's not the exclusive privilege of the elite and the wealthy.

Some kids go walking in the mountains, but I just went to the cinema. So when I told my parents I wanted to be an actor, even though this wasn't normal for Arab kids or anyone in the town, they were sort of expecting it and were very supportive.

It used to be the one or the other, right? You were the 'bad girl' or the 'good girl' or the 'bad mother' or 'the good mother,' 'the horrible businesswoman who eschewed her children' or 'the earth mother who was happy to be at home baking pies,' all of that stuff that we sort of knew was a lie.

I come from this bubble in life - I come from a great family and went to a nice school, and I have friends, and life is pretty rosy.