Recognizing Your Strengths.
Laeticia Raveena is a young woman from Malaysia. Her family is Hindu, and it is a large one. Growing up, she was showered with much love and acceptance. Nothing in her character lead her towards the type of violence or aggression that might be identified as typically male. Instead, even from a very young age, she was happy to dress up like a little girl, play with dolls, and express herself in the gentlest of manners. In this way, she behaved like many other transgender women who would later on make a full transition to being female. Laeticia believes people “cannot choose the way they are born. But they can choose to be a good person.” That is really the easy part for her. The true difficulty is being born in the wrong body.
Laeticia came to terms with her difficulty and resolved it in the most positive manner possible. She undertook the discipline, physical regimen, and mental preparation to have gender confirmation surgery. She completed the surgery in 2016. In doing so, she affirmed her most rigorously held belief. “The Universe and the Gods above,” she has said, “know what we need, when, how, why, and where.” That is something that carries her through life right up until this very moment.
In her public and private life, Laeticia constantly feeds her creative desires. She is multifaceted, giving time to her outlets as a pastry chef who adorns her wall with a poster of Audrey Hepburn, a cabaret artist, a beauty queen, and a specialist cake decorator. Finding her is sometimes a bit of a problem, however, as she is often going back and forth between Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, or spending time in Melbourne or Dublin. In her actions, beliefs, and goals, she makes the perfect role model for a young generation of transgender women.
