Conversations with Samuel Giardina

Today we’d like to introduce you to Samuel Giardina. 

Hi Samuel, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Well, to start off, I am a 23-year-old photographer and designer. I recently found my passion for photography when I came out in 2020. I came out as female to male transgender after having absolutely no idea who I was or what I wanted to do for 21 years of my life. It took a really long time for me to realize a lot of things about myself, not only who I am but who I wanted to be. Since coming out as a trans man, I’ve been super dedicated to being some sort of advocate for the trans community. To combine my journey and my passion I started taking self-portraits. For the first time in my life, I was finally comfortable taking pictures of myself. My whole life I never liked what I looked like but I never knew why. Ever since I started T and got top surgery, I’ve been 100x times more confident with myself and it’s truly one of the best feelings. 

A big part of who I am comes from being trans and I like to raise awareness for the LGBTQ+ community by talking about my transition and being a resource for information about my community. This is when I realized I wanted to build on my personal brand. What I like the most about my brand, Sam Avery Media, is that not only have I made it into a good resource for the trans community but I’ve used my photography to do so. A large part of what drives my career comes from who I am so I try my best to promote my brand using myself portraits. They’re even included in my apparel which promotes the LGBTQ community as well as my photography. Now, my goal is to continue with my business and reach as many people as I can with my story and my art. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Everyone’s journey is different. If you look at my life now you may think, oh he had it easy. I have a supportive family, friends, and I’m happy. But it wasn’t always like that, trust me. Coming out was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Especially when you’ve already come out twice before, once as bisexual and the second time, as a lesbian. Coming out as trans was 100x harder for me. I would sit in my room for months hating myself and my body. My gender dysphoria took over my entire life. I didn’t think I would ever be able to tell anyone who I was or who I wanted to be. I didn’t think anyone would believe me, or even accept me for that matter. During this time, I was also going through a really difficult break up so it made everything even worse. I was depressed, I hated who I was, I was ashamed to even think about telling my family. But I came to a point where I realized that the only thing holding me back from making the decision to come out and the decision to transition was other people. I asked myself, “If nobody would care and I could start my transition tomorrow, would I?” The answer was yes. Absolutely. 

I come from a rather traditional Italian family, so you could say that it was a shock to them. As someone who is an empath, I tried my best to look at their perspective. I tried to make excuses for people’s reactions. I didn’t talk to my brother who’s my absolute best friend in the entire world for two months after I came out. I felt uncomfortable around some of my friends and family. I felt BAD when they messed up pronouns. I get it because you’ve known me 21 years of my life as someone else. But at the end of the day, no matter how hard it is for someone else to look at me and no longer see their daughter, sister, niece, granddaughter, etc, it’s even harder for me to look at myself and not be able to see the person I am on the inside. Making the decision to transition was the best decision of my entire life. 

I have openly shared my story on social media so that I could be a role model for younger individuals who might be going through the same thing. However, the amount of hate I have gotten is far beyond my control. I’ve been told, “you’ll never be a real man”, “once a girl always a girl”, “being trans is weird”, “god hates you” …the list goes on. There’s always gonna be struggle. But it’s beyond worth it. At the end of the day, what matters most is that I’m happy. And I can honestly say, this is the happiest I’ve ever been. 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My career has taken so many different pathways but my real passion is my art. I started my own business, Sam Avery Media, where I combine my photography, design, and marketing skills to sell apparel, prints, and share my work. I also like to be an advocate of the trans community by posting resourceful information on transitioning and sharing my journey through my art as a way to increase awareness for my community. 

My whole life I hated what I looked like in photos so I often took a lot of pictures of other things and people. I always enjoyed photography but I never really learned I had a true passion for it until I came out. I started to try and capture the beauty in life because for the first time I was happy and confident with who I was and with life in general. If I hadn’t transitioned, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I started to bring my camera everywhere so I could capture everything. I started to actually enjoy taking photos of myself because for the first time I saw who I was on the inside my whole life. It was like my body finally matched my brain for the first time. Self-portraits became my favorite type of photography to specialize in. A lot of my self-portrait photography is inspired by the emotions I’ve experienced throughout my trans journey. I’m finally proud of who I am and I want to use my photography as a way to capture that. I want people to see what a trans journey really is like and show that my community is strong and we deserve a lot more respect than what we get. 

What’s next?
I honestly hope to be traveling. I want to be able to support myself enough to do my business full-time. I’ve been looking to actually plan a road trip soon. I haven’t been around too much of the United States so I want to experience as much of the world as I can until I can’t travel anymore. I’m just looking forward to experiencing more of life as who I am now. I lived 21 years of my life as a woman. That’s not who I am. Although, I don’t regret a thing because I had a lot of experiences that have shaped me into the man I am today. If I’m being completely honest, I learned how to be a good man through my experiences living as a woman. I’m glad I decided to transition when I did. I couldn’t be more grateful with a supportive family and supportive friends. But, looking back, I wish I didn’t focus so much on other people and what they would think. My happiness was being restricted because I was too scared of how other people would feel. So, I’m honestly just looking forward to continuing to grow as the man I’ve always wanted to be. 

Contact Info:

• Email: samgiardina9@gmail.com
• Website: https://www.samaverymedia.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sam_giardina/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samaverymedia
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sam_giardina
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@samuel.avery