Siobhan McCann has shot hundreds of individuals in her job as a photojournalist. But, she landed her greatest story by aiming her digital camera at herself.
Practically every single day for nearly three years now, McCann has snapped selfies staring straight into the lens of her good telephone with the identical impartial gaze.
She has woven the photographs into highly effective time-lapses that chronicle her metamorphosis from a person to a girl, demystifying the method for hundreds of thousands on social media.
Her tightly-edited montages on Instagram and TikTok monitor apparent adjustments corresponding to shaving off her facial hair and rising her buzz reduce into a protracted pink mane.
In addition they seize subtleties just like the methods hormone substitute remedy has softened her pores and skin and rounded out her face, making it look extra female.
But what’s most putting isn’t the change in McCann, however fairly her consistency, as if we’re instantly witnessing the 25-year-old’s gender-affirming transformation which supplies us a greater view into what was at all times important about her — a groundedness that has little to do with gender in any respect.
‘That was the purpose of going via all this within the first place,’ she informed DailyMail.com.
Born in Plymouth, England, and raised in South Florida, McCann says it will have been simpler to have come of age – as she says most non-trans of us assume – realizing she was a woman trapped in a boy’s physique.


Siobhan McCann, 25 documented her three-year journey transitioning from a person to a girl – shedding the thrill reduce and beard for lengthy pink hair

As soon as out of school, she grew to become a photojournalist for South Florida TV station the place she has the startling realization that she had gender dysmorphia
As a substitute, as a homosexual teenager and younger man, her picture of herself was blurred by ‘a way of detachment’ about the best way she appeared that for years she was unable to articulate.
As soon as she graduated from Florida State College and went to work as a information photographer for a South Florida TV station, she began noticing that the folks whose footage she took appeared extra relaxed with themselves than she ever felt.
‘I used to be simply going about my every day life, interacting with folks and realized what had been increase subconsciously – that I wasn’t snug with myself as a man,’ she mentioned.
That feeling prompted her to fish round on-line about males who change into feminine. One thing clicked when she came across a collection of before-and-after photographs.
‘I out of the blue realized, “Oh, I’m transgender,” and that I’d be happier as a girl.’
The conclusion got here as a aid, she mentioned, as a result of, ‘It was one thing I might take motion on, one thing that I might change.’
McCann describes going forward with hormone substitute remedy as an ‘simple resolution to make, though a troublesome factor to do’. Round that point in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis had positioned restrictions on adults looking for gender-affirming medical therapy.
She was so sure about her path that she began taking Estradiol, a feminine hormone, at age 22, solely two or three weeks after realizing she was trans.

McCann was born in Plymouth, England, and raised in South Florida the place she consistently felt disconnected from what she would see within the mirror earlier than her transition

In 2022, McCann lined Hurricane Ian whereas coping with the immense harm completed to her household dwelling in Florida

When she first began her transformation, solely three weeks after realizing she was transgender, she started taking every day selfies – together with playful ones that confirmed her mustache being step by step shaved off
That’s when she additionally began taking every day selfies.
Between rising from mattress and brushing her tooth every morning, she sits close to a window bathed in pure mild and snaps a photograph of herself with out make-up or primping. She desires to look utterly pure so she will monitor her progress as precisely as attainable.
McCann’s over 900 selfies, seamlessly pieced collectively via stabilization strategies that align her face from one picture to the following, give a uncooked, unvarnished view of her transition.
At one level, in 2022, she appeared exhausted after Hurricane Ian slammed her household’s dwelling in Florida. One other from 2023 confirmed her with pink eczema throughout her face. Midway in, she seems to be without delay utterly non-gendered and in addition completely herself.
There’s an honesty, a rootedness in these photographs, which might be exceptional on condition that gender affirmation all too usually is seen as a makeover fairly than an unveiling.
McCann’s time lapses take viewers from the purpose when she began hormone remedy whereas dwelling together with her mother and father in Fort Myers via her transfer to New Hampshire for extra dependable medical therapy, a greater job and proximity to a person she met on-line in 2023, a few yr into her transition.
That beau, 27-year-old sound technician Noah Vandewerf, may be seen in fast cameos in McCann’s morning selfies kissing her and making foolish faces within the background.
She has not up to date her montage since transferring in October to Boston the place she now works on the native FOX affiliate and lives even nearer to Vandewerf, who says his sort is ‘fairly ladies’ like her.

She took over 900 photographs that she made right into a time-lapse video. A few of these photographs confirmed her boyfriend Noah Vandewerf, 27, who may be seen in fast cameos

McCann moved to New Hampshire to be nearer to Vandewerf, a sound technician, who she related with in 2023. She mentioned she’s additionally acquired a greater paying job there and higher therapy for her transition

She then moved to Boston in October to be even nearer to her beau and to work at a neighborhood FOX affiliate
‘I acknowledge that her earlier self was simply as real and essential in realizing the individual she is immediately,’ he informed DailyMail.com.
‘Now I’m straight and regular,’ McCann added.
For her, which means opting in opposition to genital reassignment surgical procedure and voice coaching that will assist her communicate extra like a organic girl.
Though shedding an inch of peak and a superb little bit of muscle mass has made her work hauling heavy cable reels, tripods and TV cameras tougher, she says she has gained a way of consolation that will not have been attainable as a person.
‘I’m extra assured, extra sociable. I used to be by no means as outgoing as I’ve been during the last three years,’ she mentioned.
The hormones additionally allow her to cry extra simply and launch all method of emotions that have been pent up in manhood.
‘It’s not that I’m a special individual, only a extra genuine model of myself.’
At first, McCann created time-lapses every month as a technique to keep away from what she calls the ‘doom spiral’ of worrying that hormone substitute remedy wasn’t working.

At first, McCann mentioned she created time-lapses every month as a technique to keep away from what she calls the ‘doom spiral’ of worrying that hormone substitute remedy wasn’t working

McCann doesn’t replace or watch her time-lapses as incessantly any extra, however she mentioned she hopes it raises consciousness about gender-affirming care which is presently being hindered by the Trump administration
‘I’d watch them every single day to see how far I’d come after I felt like I wasn’t making progress,’ she mentioned.
Then she began enjoying with the method, making it seem like she shaved asymmetrical parts of her mustache over a number of weeks when she truly did away with it in a day.
At one level, she framed her transformation not as a gender identification change, however as the results of ‘5 months dwelling subsequent to the 5G tower’. Fearful male viewers in Russia and the Center East wrote her in confusion. ‘They didn’t get it was a joke.’
Humor, she says, helps ‘defang and demystify’ the transgender course of ‘for individuals who is perhaps curious or skeptical about it.’
McCann doesn’t replace or watch her time-lapses as incessantly any extra, preferring to take pleasure in her transformation fairly than conserving monitor of it. Nonetheless, she hopes her montages will assist increase consciousness of gender-affirming care in a time when entry to it’s being hindered by the Trump administration.
She additionally hopes it should encourage guys just like the one she was once, whom she asks to not title to be able to keep away from confusion.
‘Lots of people have commented through the years that they noticed this and it helped affect their resolution. It’s candy,’ she mentioned.
The enter strikes her not simply as a trans girl, but in addition as a journalist: ‘As a bit of labor, recording one thing genuine and true, I feel it’s the very best I’ll ever do.’