Tommy Dorfman portrayed the character of Ryan Shaver on the Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why.
So the television star is pretty well known to a certain segment of television viewers.
And yet:
Dorfman is now here to reintroduce herself to the world…
… as a woman.
“For a year now, I have been privately identifying and living as a woman — a trans woman,” Tommy told Time Magazine in a new interview with an interview with novelist Torrey Peters.
“It’s funny to think about coming out, because I haven’t gone anywhere.
“I view today as a reintroduction to me as a woman, having made a transition medically.”
Added Dorfman:
“Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman. My pronouns are she/her. My name is Tommy.”
The actress, who has been chronicling her changes in style and appearance for a number of months on Instagram, says she felt the need to publicly address her gender identity in order to maintain control of her own narrative.
She wants to be in control.
“I’ve been living in this other version of coming out where I don’t feel safe enough to talk about it, so I just do it. But I recognize that transitioning is beautiful. Why not let the world see what that looks like?” she said.
“So I kept, on Instagram, a diaristic time capsule instead — one that shows a body living in a more fluid space.
“However, I’ve learned as a public-facing person that my refusal to clarify can strip me of the freedom to control my own narrative.
“With this medical transition, there has been discourse about my body, and it began to feel overwhelming.”
Dorfman says she will not change her name.
It was given in honor of her mother’s brother… who died shortly after she was born.
“I feel very connected to that name, to an uncle who held me as he was dying,” she said.
“This is an evolution of Tommy. I’m becoming more Tommy.”
Dorfman has also had roles in Love in the Time of Corona; Love, Victor; and Jane the Virgin.
“I’m most recognized for playing a bitchy gay poet on a soap opera,” she told Time.
“And I feared that by actively transitioning in my personal life, I would lose whatever career I’ve been told I’m supposed to have.
“But I’m no longer interested in playing ‘male’ characters…Sometimes you just have to say, ‘No, this is just who I f–king am.'”
In addition to her professional life, Tommy also reflected on the aspects of her personal relationships that have changed
“Personally, it’s wild to be 29 and going through puberty again. Some days I feel like I’m 14.
“As a result of that shift, the types of romantic partnerships I seek out are different, I was in a nine-year relationship in which I was thought of as a more male-bodied person, with a gay man.
“I love him so much, but we’ve been learning that as a trans woman, what I’m interested in is not necessarily reflected in a gay man.”
“So, we’ve had incredible conversations to redefine our relationship as friends.
“Transitioning has been liberating and clarifying.”
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