SheMail No. 3

Hi Angels <3

Welcome to the 3rd Issue of SheMail, an editorial for Cool Trans Girls aka the internet’s cuntiest newsletter. No algorithms here so I don’t have to censor myself- how freeing lol.

Right now I’m co-working in the New York Public library with my dear friend Tyler, she’s a real CTG. We had some coffee, some deep conversations, and talked about growing our businesses.

Hanging out with another trans girl who has the swagger of an entrepreneur- what could be more CTG then that?

Despite the shotty internet, and my eye thats twitching bc I only slept four hours after a night of drag bingo, I’m still determined to deliver a quality newsletter for you girls every week, indefinitely, forever.

So without further ado let’s get into the third edition of SheMail <3

🍸 In Today's Newsletter...

• 🔮 Energy of the Week Tarot Pull

• Life's 2 Short 2 be Cis (or at least try to be)

• CTG of the Week

• The Tea- Trans News

• My Current Lip Combo

🔮 Energy of the Week Tarot Pull

Each week, I pull one card to tune into the underlying energy ahead. Tarot isn’t about predicting the future — it’s about checking in with your current timeline and gently steering your own ship.

💀DEATH

The death card is one my favorite cards- relax death is a good thing.

The Death Card in tarot is illustrated by a skeleton in black armor riding a white horse. He carries a black flag with a white rose — a symbol of life and renewal.

Figures from all walks of life kneel or lie before him, showing that change spares no one. In the background, the sun rises between two towers, reminding us that after every end is a new beginning.

The Death Card Represents:

• Transformation

• Endings

• Release

• Rebirth

• Surrender

In life we constantly experience death and rebirth- this is even more apparent for those of us who are trans. When we choose to transition we are essentially choosing a new life- but in the same breath we also choose death because you can’t have a new life unless the old one goes away.

This cycle of death and rebirth happens with any major life change. Maybe we leave a job that’s draining our life force, we walk away from a relationship that we know isn’t good for us, or we move to a new city for a fresh start.

Whenever you make decisions that big, whenever you say- that’s it I’m done. Your soul is doing it because you KNOW that there is something better on the other side.

In every death we experience, we also experience grief. We grieve the life we once had- for it’s predicability, for it’s comfort, for allowing us to stay exactly the same. In the thick of not knowing what happens next, that is when our grief becomes the loudest.

Channeling the Energy of the Death Card

My advice to anyone reading this is to remember that things have to go away in order for something new to come in. Trust in whatever death you are experiencing, do not allow grief to stop you from transformation.

You’re allowed to be sad, you’re allowed to experience grief but you also need to move forward. Even when it’s hard, even when you’re not sure where your foot will land. Keep going, just one step at a time- you got this.

Something That Stuck With Me- Ur Not Cis, Sis

A few days ago I had just finished getting my hair done by Ernesto at District 87- one of the hottest hair salons in NYC. After my hair appointment my gut was telling me to go to Fanelli Cafe, a pub in Soho thats been around since 1847.

I walked from Chinatown to Soho, and asked the host for a table for one. I already knew I wanted a burger and a dirty vodka martini (even though my bank account was telling me to go home and eat $1 pizza for the rest of the week).

While sitting I thought about how much nicer it’d be if I had someone to share this moment with- but no one was there so instead I decided to create this reel.

cooltransgirl

16K followers

View more on Instagram

I had designed the post to be inspirational, relatable, and shareable- and the caption is an epiphany I had not too long ago. I had been feeling down at some point last week, feeling like I was arriving to the party late and that I was behind on life.

I was reflecting on my past- reflecting on how I had allowed myself to be treated, reflecting on my mistakes, reflecting on the bullying I’ve endured, and the micro-agressions that still haunt me even this far along in my transition.

It’s so easy to wish you weren’t different, especially in those low moments. When you’re tired of carrying what feels like the weight of the world. But then I realized something…

I know my life would be different if I was cisgender and in a lot of ways it would be easier- but I’m not and there’s nothing I can do to change that. I’m not a magician, I don’t know any genies, and no amount of gender affirming surgeries will make me not transgender.

This is my reality and is it sobering at times? Yes. But what can I do about it? The circumstances are the circumstances- they aren’t good, they aren’t bad, they just ARE.

So with that being said, and part of this harkens back to the Death card- I transitioned because part of me knew that whatever was on the other side of death was better than the reality I was in when living as a cis man.

Your soul chose to transition, you chose to walk through fire, to be wide awake in a society of sleep walking zombies- some of which will never understand you.

HOWEVER it is absolutely up to you to make the most of your situation. You owe it to yourself to make this life MATTER to create something meaningful otherwise- what’s the point of all this?

What’s the point of transitioning if you’re not fighting for the life that you want? Your new life is completely up to you.

And also btw- life isn’t supposed to be easy. Nobodies life is, everyone has their demons. So even if you weren’t trans you’d find something else to be upset about, that’s just human nature- we’re all just a little bit insufferable.

My point in all of this being, what good is it to deny reality? It won’t change anything- it doesn’t mean you have to love your circumstances but how are you going to use your circumstances to your advantage?

🎀 Cool Trans Girl of the Week- Meet CTG Manny

About CTG Manny

When CTG Manny picks up the phone the first thing I notice (other than her beautiful face) is the giant pink Juicy Couture poster behind her with the words “Smooth and Juicy”.

I of course have to ask where she got it, “It was from a Juicy Couture shaving campaign, it was hanging up somewhere and so I took it and brought it home. Most of my posters I just found on the street.”

She flashes me her New School dorm room adorned with campaign posters that have tattered edges, I imagine her delicately peeling the posters off the scaffolding like a bumper sticker that doesn’t resonate with you anymore.

It had been a while since I spoke to CTG Manny, last year we had collaborated on a project about how deadnaming and misgendering kids in high school actually inhibits them from succeeding in school, you can actually read the article and watch the interview here on the OG website.

But CTG Manny isn’t in high school anymore, she’s entered a whole new phase of her life as a young woman. I asked her how it’s been since she moved to the city and started college.

“Honestly, first semester was brutal- I had this roommate that was actually insane and was spreading rumors about me in my own friend group. I also had a fling with this emo boy that was kinda evil- but it was hot for like two weeks.” said CTG Manny.

But things have changed drastically for this diva. After getting a new roommate and exorcising the twink that wore studded belts from her life. CTG Manny had created space for something far better to come in.

For starters she met her boyfriend, EJ an RA on campus. Not her RA specifically but apparently a lot of people were mad about it (mostly the cis straighties). Going so far as to post about it on Fizz which is basically a shit talking app. Which honestly I think is super iconic.

While being happy in her T4T relationship, CTG Manny has also found community in the ballroom scene. I asked her how she got involved (because honestly I’ve been curious about it myself).

“I was scouted.” She said. “I was on the train and I heard this dude and a trans woman talking, not like I heard her voice and I was like -oh she’s trans. It was more of an energy thing.

Anyways we got off the train at the same time and she came up to me and asked if I was one of her. I of course knew what she meant, she told me she was a part of House of Wang- and to come meet her for practice in Brooklyn that week.”

Since joining the House of Vera Wang Manny has been walking the realness category.

Manny, What does being a Cool Trans Girl mean to you?

CTG Manny is an absolute DIVA & STAR. Manny is pursuing her major in contemporary music and has even teased an EP in the near future. You of course will be the first to know.

In the meantime you can follow CTG Manny on instagram where you can watch her journey from NYU student to A-List pop star but in my mind she’s already famous <3

Calling all CTG’s: DM or respond to this email with your favorite selfie and tell me about how you embody Cool Trans Girl in your life OR if you know a Cool Trans Girl I should feature? DM me their @

This Weeks Tea- Trans News

From courtrooms to community wins- here’s what went down in trans news this week. Sources: @queernewsdaily and at @erininthemorning 

Trump’s HHS Pushes 400-Page Anti-Trans Report — Sounds Fake But Okay

Last week, the Trump administration’s Health and Human Services department (now run by RFK Jr., because of course) dropped a 400+ page “report” trashing gender-affirming care.

It has no authors, no peer review, and no real science—just political pseudoscience dressed up in a government PDF. Among the wildest claims? That gender-affirming care should be judged by whether trans people are employed or have romantic partners. Oh, and it recommends conversion therapy. For kids.

The American Academy of Pediatrics immediately called it out for being inaccurate, misleading, and unscientific. Trans researchers have already traced the doc’s metadata back to anti-trans philosophers and consultants—not doctors.

My Personal Take

This is one of the most openly hostile and dangerous documents we’ve seen from the U.S. government in recent years—and that’s saying something. It’s clear this isn’t about science; it’s about control.

But here’s the truth: the more visible we are, the harder it is to erase us. This is a group effort.

Proposed Cut to LGBTQ Youth S*uicide Line: HHS says Fuck Dem Kids

A leaked HHS budget draft shows the federal government plans to eliminate services for LGBTQ youth on the 988 suicide hotline starting this October. Since 2022, the LGBTQ line has received 1.3 million calls, texts, and chats—2,100 a day on average. Experts are calling this move a death sentence wrapped in a budget cut.

Under RFK Jr. (yikes), HHS has already gutted SAMHSA, proposed 40–44% cuts to NIH and CDC programs, and nuked funding for everything from Head Start to chronic disease research.

But stripping LGBTQ youth of trained crisis counselors—who understand things like misgendering, family rejection, and political violence—is particularly cruel.

My Personal Take

This isn’t about money—it’s about erasure. Queer and trans kids already face higher suicide rates, and now the government is yanking the one lifeline many had.

More than likely I foresee a group of people coming forward and creating a new suicide line (that’s if the proposal is passed). It’s up to us to fill the gaps- we all can’t do everything but we can each do something

Trans Troops Get a Win — Despite Trump’s Best Efforts

The Pentagon has been forced to resume gender-affirming care for transgender service members after a federal court struck down the Trump administration’s ban as unconstitutional.

The order blocks Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from forcing out over 1,000 trans troops or denying them medical care. Translation: the military is returning to Biden-era protections — for now.

Trump and Hegseth (yes, the guy texting military secrets and fighting his own staff) tried to justify the ban under “medical readiness,” but two judges weren’t buying it. They ruled the policy was a thinly veiled anti-trans attack. The administration is still pushing the Supreme Court to let the ban stand, but courts aren’t playing along.

My Personal Take

This is a rare legal win in a sea of chaos — but let’s be real, it shouldn’t take a court battle to stop the government from banning us from serving our own country.

Bonus: My Current Lippy

I went big shopping at Sephora and wanted to spice up my life with a brown glossy lip for spring/summer. Think nude baddie vibes.

Okay divas, it is rapidly approaching 5am and I have to wake up at 9am to work a double FUCK MY LIFEEEEEE I’m never procrastinating this newsletter again

Anyways With love, strength, and solidarity,

Xoxo CTG Aria