Angelica Ross on Her New Buzzcut: "I Only Feel More Beautiful"

Long hair is often tied to a person's femininity — the same goes for a person's choice to wear or not wear makeup, nail polish, and so on. But Ross is challenging and speaking up about those stereotypical ideas of what a woman (or any person, for that matter) should look like.

"Now when I remove a wig or makeup, I only feel more beautiful, not less," she said. "I could not always say that in the beginning of my transition. I needed the hair. I needed the makeup in order to make me feel like I belonged in the ranks with women in society and that I was enough of a woman. I eventually realized that cis women and trans women doing the same damn thing, trying to fit into unreasonable standards of womanhood."