In the ‘Faking It’ season premiere Lauren reveals that she’s intersex, and like most of us watching, Amy immediately asks “soo what does that mean?” To help answer this, our friends at interactyouth connected us to college student, Amanda (who you can follow here), an openly lesbian intersex person who first “came out” at 13 years old. Read on for our interview with Amanda to learn what it’s like and what it means to be intersex.

LD: What does it mean to be intersex and how has coming out and identifying as intersex affected you?

AS: “It means that an individual might have differences about their body that makes them neither entirely male nor female – at least by the standards learned in high school biology.

I’ve been ‘coming out’ to people since I was 13, which is how old I was when I was diagnosed. I remember not wanting to be alone with my diagnosis, with the one thing that made me so different, so I told my best friends. My friends were kind and intelligent girls and I knew, or at least I hoped, that they would understand. Which thankfully they did, and this initial positive interaction laid the foundation to help me accept my condition and cultivate it as a part of my identity. Coming out has helped me not only to be happier with myself but also to see that other people have willing and open minds, and identifying as intersex is simply me being honest with myself and the people in my life, as well as me staying true to the person that I am.”  Click here to read more!