“I'm craving positive energies.
I'm thinking about the future.
I'm drawing on the lines of destiny to the life I want.”
有时候，你只需坚持不懈，继续努力，意识到回报最终会到来。无论你有多聪明、多机智，坚持不懈才是关键。当然，还有一点运气。简而言之，这描述了纳塔莉·德·奥利维拉（Nathalie de Oliveira），一位巴西跨性别女性，她依靠自己的智慧、决心和愿意发现周围的机会，走到了今天的位置。
而她今天的位置非常好。她不仅追求并实现了她的梦想，而且在取得成功后，她作为一个人也有了成长。纳塔莉现在不仅在医学领域拥有一个成功的职业生涯，而且在个人生活中也能够享受满足。她是如何走到今天这一步的呢？
纳塔莉的梦想之一是参加并赢得一场选美比赛。因此，2013年，她参加了巴西跨性别选美大赛。作为她第一次置身于这样的环境，她并没有获胜。但她学到了东西。她了解到如何应对压力、聚光灯下的注视和期望。2014年，纳塔莉再次参加了比赛。然而，她再次未能获得最高荣誉。尽管如此，她在2015年再次回归。而这一次，她赢得了胜利。除此之外，她还获得了一笔奖金，支持她进行性别确认手术。她在2016年在卡莫尔医院完成了手术。
Nathalie在《巴西跨性别选美大赛》上升成功的故事揭示了她对待生活的态度，并且是理解她早期克服障碍的关键。
早在很小的时候，身边的人就意识到Nathalie是一个聪明的人，如果她下定决心，能在生活中取得很大成就。到了17岁时，她已经是一个非常优秀的学生，在学校表现出色。因此，她参加并通过了一项艰苦的政府考试，成为了一名公共卫生官员。她为自己的成就感到骄傲。但这也让她意识到自己将面临的挑战。当时，一名跨性别女性在这个领域工作还是相当不常见的。Nathalie的存在让周围的一些人感到尴尬，甚至更糟的是，有些人对她敌意显露无遗。然而，这是Nathalie关心并希望追求的职业。她解决问题的方式是典型的她：她努力变得更优秀，更有资格。她继续获得了护理学的大学学位。
Nathalie生活中的一个突然转折点发生在她大学最后一年。据Nathalie说，那时人们开始注意到她被称为好看。他们称赞她的美丽。许多人甚至对她表示赞赏。正是周围人的这种肯定最终说服了Nathalie参加了她的第一次《巴西跨性别选美大赛》，时间是2013年。
Since then, Nathalie has continued to participate in pageants, such as the Miss International Queen Pageant, where she was the first runner-up in 2016. She does so because she believes they are life affirming for her personally. They bring balance to her private life of work and study. She also takes the opportunities that pageants provide to advance the rights of transgender people and educate the public about who transgender women and men really are.
One such educational moment occurred in 2019, when Nathalie made history by becoming the first transgender woman in Brazil to compete in one of the national stages of the Miss Brazil Pageant. Miss Brazil then goes on to represent her country in the Miss Universe contest. Nathalie says of her experience that “Today, I feel that I can speak for all the people who have always watched Miss Universe [on] TV, that something that seemed unattainable has now been achieved. I want my story to serve as an example to all people born in controversial realities and dreams that seem impossible to conquer.”
Meanwhile, in her search for personal happiness, Nathalie also seems to have struck gold. And while most of her success is due to her planning, hard work, and personal inspiration, it was a matter of good fortune that brought her into contact with the man who would become her fiancé.
At the start of things, however, what was to become good luck, did not seem so at the time. Nathalie had just ended her relationship with an abusive boyfriend in 2016. This came to a head with his interference with her desire to come to Thailand for gender confirmation surgery that year. Nathalie realized that she was the person who needed to take charge of her future. Shortly after however, she found someone who would share feelings of mutual respect, her current fiancé.
A physician in Europe, Nathalie's fiancé was introduced to her only after a strange incident. He had spent some time online exchanging messages with a person who claimed to be Nathalie but was not. The impostor had used Nathalie's photographs, life story, and news clippings to create a fake account that lured people into believing it was Nathalie's site. Such “catfishing” can be dangerous. Nathalie's fiancé was caught off guard by events. But he then noticed something. One of the photos on the impostor website had a “Miss T Brasil” watermark on it. He investigated, made contacts with people at the pageant, and was able to send Nathalie flowers on the eve of one of her competitions.
Today, Nathalie and her fiancé are together, planning a move to Europe. And she has some suggestions for people following in her path. First, she says, “always follow your dreams. Then, surround yourself with people who support you and your decision to transition. And, last, research the right place for you.”
