Book ~ "He Said, She Said: Lessons, Stories, and Mistakes from My Transgender Journey" (2019) Gigi Gorgeous

From Goodreads ~ Today, Gigi Gorgeous is beloved for her critically-acclaimed documentary, her outrageous sense of humor, her no-holds-barred honesty, and her glam Hollywood lifestyle. Ten years ago, she was a gawky Canadian teen named Gregory. In He Said, She Said, Gigi brings us on her personal journey from Gregory to Gigi, going deeper than ever before and exposing her vulnerability behind each struggle and triumph, with her signature humor on every page.

With stunning photography and heirloom snapshots, He Said, She Said takes us back to Gigi's early years as an Olympic-bound diver and high school mean girl, losing her mom at a tragically young age, and her journey of opening up about her sexuality and gender identity. She walks us through her transition, baring it all about dating and heartbreak in her stories of falling in love with both men and women.

Uproarious, unconventional, and unabashedly candid, Gigi shares never-before-heard stories, inspiration, and advice about how your life can take you to incredible places once you get real with yourself.

To be honest, I've never heard of Gigi Gorgeous.  Apparently she is a YouTuber, socialite, actress and model.  What attracted me to the book was that it was about a gay man in Toronto who became transgender who became a lesbian.  I thought that would be an interesting story ... and for the most part it was.

Gigi started in life as Gregory, the middle son of three, living in the Toronto area.  Even as a young boy, he was attracted to pretty girly things like make-up, nail polish, Barbie Dolls, etc.  As he grew older, he tried to figure out who he was and eventually made it happen.  Now she's living in Los Angeles and married to Nats Getty, a member of the famous Getty family who is apparently an American model, socialite, designer, artist and LGBTQ rights activist.

It was interesting reading about the transition of Gregory to Gigi.  It sounds like an expensive and painful process.  I found there were gaps in her story, though.  One minute he was a gay high school boy making and uploading videos onto YouTube and the next thing you know he had a manager and was being flown to New York and Los Angeles to attend and speak at fashion shows.  Huh?  As I said, I don't know who she is or her story (other than what I read in her book) so it would have been nice to get a little more information about how that happened.  And how did she get so famous?  It seems like she moved to Los Angeles and that's all it took.  I doubt it was that easy.  And what does she do on a day-to-day basis to support herself?  More time could have been spent there ... she's assuming everyone knows who she is.

Though I found her story interesting, I didn't find Gigi overly likeable.  I thought she was pretentious, superficial, materialistic and immature.  She's going to be 28 soon but writes and "talks" like a 15-year-old.  She does warn us in an early chapter about her vocabulary ... like "totes" instead of "totally" and "Hundo P" instead of "100%".  As a head's up, there is swearing, sexual activity and drug use.

There are lots of full colour pictures throughout the book from her childhood, her pre-Gigi period and how she is now.  There were three happy pictures with her and an old boyfriend, which was weird, since she describes their relationship as verbally abusive ... why would you include the pictures?!  There are many pages of her dressed in fashion and make-up.  It was kind of strange at one point when she is talking about the death of her mother from cancer and how devastated the family was ... and then in the middle of this are fashion pictures ... they might have rethought the placement.  At the end of the book are pictures of her friends and who they are in her life.