Beauty & Fashion

“Beauty” can be a loaded word for many queer & trans folks. What does it mean to be beautiful; to be worthy of being seen and loved?

Queer St. Louisans speak up about aesthetics, transience, gender expectations, Black hair, desirability, experimentation, nature, jewelry, clothing, authenticity, and more ⬇️

What is Queer Beauty?

“Queerness is beautiful”.

We are beautiful in all the ways that we resist cis- and heteronormative standards for existing.

“Authenticity is beautiful”.

We are beautiful when we have the room to be ourselves, unapologetically, in all our myriad forms.

“Community is beautiful”.

We are beautiful when we are able to create non-judgmental spaces for healing and support with each other.

“Resistance is beautiful”.

We are beautiful when we stand in solidarity to combat systems of oppression that harm us.

Photo of Lauren Hirschmann

“Beauty is a word that I struggled with in itself for a really long time, especially being raised more traditionally masculine. A lot of more feminine traits were hidden from me. The idea of wanting to be beautiful felt inherently wrong for a long time. You're supposed to be handsome and you know, whatever society thinks that men should be, and that just never felt right to me. I wanted people to tell me I looked pretty.”

– Drew Ryherd (he / they / she)

“I think for gender non-conforming people or people whose identities are transient, [fast fashion] allots some space to experiment in a cheap way. And so I'm trying to navigate not being an accumulator of waste.”

“I'm really into aesthetics and synesthesia. What do we see and how does it make us feel?”

– Maxi Glamour (they/them)

“I think beauty means whatever you want it to mean, and I think there's definitely a lot of societal pressure on what beauty means.”

— Drake (he/him)

Photo of Phillip Voglewede

Photo of Hafsa Said (they/them)

“As a Black woman, there's so much politics around how we wear our hair. I think sometimes even trying to make sure the wig looks super realistic and passing as a black woman, which is a bold thing to say. If I say passing, I mean just acceptable in terms of white supremacy and what a desirable black woman means. But I was never meant to fit those standards, especially as a disabled, black person and black woman.”

— Alexis Nichole (she / they / star)

Photo of Dean Rosen (he / they)

“Beauty to me is just finding what is comfortable for you, however that looks, and just really honing in on that. Beauty is comfort and not feeling like I'm dressing for anyone but myself.”

— Mack (they / he)

Photo of Eileen Cheong (she / they)

“I think I feel the most beautiful when I feel like myself, when I can feel confident. I tend to wear more feminine clothing [and] have longer hair. I wear more jewelry than I used to. [But] I don't think that it is femininity that makes me beautiful. I think that's just how I want to express myself. It is a better reflection of who I am and that is the best feeling in the world. When I feel confident, I feel like I'm glowing and that is an addicting feeling.”

– Drew Ryherd (he / they / she)

Photo of Miranda Rectenwald (she/her)

Photo of Elizabeth Ward (she/her)

“The idea of being beautiful is just expressing yourself how you want to be seen. And I don't think that there is any gender to the idea of beauty whatsoever. I think it is a very fluid thing. Anybody can be beautiful and I'm very, very happy that I can see it that way now. That comes with a lot of experimentation, a lot of trial and error on what I feel comfortable with and how I want to express myself. I've been able to give it the time and attention it deserves and now it's something that I can dress however I want and I can feel beautiful when I leave the house. And it's a really empowering thing.”

– Drew Ryherd (he / they / she)

Photo of Owen Guo (he/him)

“I feel like beauty for me kind of connects to nature in a way.”

– Talia Percy (they / she / he)

Photo of Skyler Holmes (she/her)

What does beauty mean to you as a queer person?

  • Beauty as a queer person means: rest, abundance, joy, peace, generosity, community!

  • Beauty to me means being your true and authentic self unrestrained. I used to think it was all about being who you were told to be but that changed entirely.

  • Way back ago I used to have a girlfriend. She was very hard-headed and I liked being friends with her. But then I realized I don’t like girls and I think men are beautiful.