interactyouth:

VICE Interview | Inter/Act member Emily Quinn. 

Why is it important to you to be such a visible presence for AIS people?

​”I was told I was the only person like this when I was growing up, and it was very lonely and scary. I wanted to look into the media for somebody to say that they were the same as me. I remember reading about certain celebrities and wanting them so badly to say that they have AIS, just so that I didn’t feel like I was such a freak or a horrible person. So that’s the main reason. I don’t want any kids going through this to feel like that.

I’m in a place where I’m very comfortable with my body, but not a lot of people are, and that’s not a good place to be. But more than that, it’s about all of these surgeries that happen without consent, on babies, on children that are two or three, even on adults. If people become more accepting about it then we will get more doctors who think twice about operating to try and “fix” us, to try and take away the thing that is making someone else uncomfortable. We’re not broken.”

FULL INTERVIEW