I decided after a few weeks of kicking this little guide around to finally pull the trigger on it and put it up as a set of suggested guidelines for trans women looking to get into the industry. I know of a few very successful t-girls here too who may be able to add in their tips. These are based off observations and experience from my own life, watching other performers, and the trans community as a whole, and is not really focused at the drag queens, cross dressing, or sissy groups as many of those have a different set of standards and rules they play by or are more fetish oriented- however there may be a few ideas that could help. In large this is more for Trans women who want to or consider getting into the industry, and would very much prefer to be able to better " blend in with other women " which is normally VERY important to transwomen
1:Dressing to your body.
the biggest and most noticeable mistake I see in a lot of transwomen both in the community and on cam comes in the form of clothing. While if your performing you will normally end up out of your clothes anyway, the main focus is on that initial look. Many, and generally older individuals - have a bad habit of locking onto a certain look that attracted them in their youth. We all do, Trans, cis, thats natural and helps guide our own ideas of ourselves, but it becomes a problem when say, your older and latch on to this visual of someone like their mother as she was at age 35, or a very young farrah fawcett circa 1972 and now in your 50's trying to squeeze into an undersized ( or oversized ) dress of that era, and mimicking the hair and makeup or very crude attempts at it, or being very broad and trying to wear cute skimpy things that in all reality just accent certain " genetically more male " traits that someone may or may not have. Over time I've seen better " passing and blending" in results when one keeps up to not only the era they are in, but also learning what suits their frames better. Cis women evolve and change and adapt to time and places, hair clothes, makeup styles evolve with time, where as Cis Men are more likely to find themselves settling on a style or look in their youth and generally sticking with it their whole lives. I'm not going to cover individual body types and ideal styles and colors for their skin much, but most of the best advice can be found readily in a search online like " dressing tips for...pear shaped women, hour glass shaped, banana shaped figures" ETC. This is more important with blending in, a performer may find that they have good luck breaking into customer bases that like the sorta cliche' drag/cross dresser look which often AIMS to stand out more - while others are more comfortable and have better success when they are much harder to pin point (aside from their category) and hit the demographics more keenly interested in the Hard pass/futa/dickgirl/trap areas.
2. Voice
The voice is and always will be the biggest pain in the ass, stressful and important trait ANY transwoman will face, many going as far as having throat surgery, often with disastrous results as a way to try and combat this. Trans Men luck out as HRT for them often includes a natural deepening of the voice to an extent, meaning they also dont have nearly as much work to perfect it, I've always said though that when it comes to genetics its easier to introduce a mutation, than fight against one - that said for transwomen its an uphill battle. the first mistake many make is wanting to talk falsetto, or low husky and breathy , or even very quiet and mixing the falsetto and breathy. but this is always a dead give away. Again some may find success in the industry with customers who LIKE the fake sounding voice, but generally again t-girls want to bury or destroy as many tells as possible. For things like tone, pitch, tember easy fixes can come from voice coaches - though this is expensive so i point to things like the EVA app series from voxpop llc and done with a vocal coach who will TEACH interactive pitch control, and more importantly breath control, because men, and women do breath differently and use different muscles when talking, breathing properly will also naturally help better soften and smooth out rough patches, and the apps have both free and very inexpensive options to get started.Though thats not where it ends, listen to how cis women talk.. their tones and afflictions, the annunciations, what letters and sounds they bite into or stress, also the consistency of speed. THEN listen to a Cis male. you will notice a massive difference even having them say the same sentence. This isnt something one just ignores as it is socially a very important cue between masculine and feminine ( not however purely male/female ) It is something learned when young by exposure and latching onto ones gender early on, Thankfully its easy to learn - as well as what words are used ( IE women will rarely say their gut, but rather stomach, tummy etc) Simply stop talking, stop over thinking, and just listen, find these patterns and begin mimicking them just like we all did as kids...eventually it becomes second nature.
3. Hair/makeup
This one is short and simpleand applies to silly things like jewelry as well. Be mindful of your face. There are a billion and one sites that can give images, tutorials etc on best styles for people with round, heart, square elongated etc faces which can be more important if your trying to hide or soften masculine features such as best form of bangs to help shorten and help round off longer faces, or styles and lengths to help soften a jawline and so on. this also applies to makeup
and learning to contour and other tricks to soften features hide or highlight others - a good example that i do myself is mastering my eye shadow and eyeliner to lift my eyes which " droop" a little on the outer ends.
4. Posture and other body stuff
I could pick this apart and try to break down the difference between masculine and feminine postures and such in detail, but will forego that by large and simply say that, like working with the voice, the key is REALLY to focus on, study and replicate, from sitting, idle standing, walking etc. Everything can be learned when you REALLY pay attention. The biggest issue though comes with being in front of an audience, and this applies to not only trans people but to cis performers as well and any of them will tell you, if you look like a terrified rabbit your going to draw out the predators - so to speak - Its terrifying yeah even those of us who go on constantly can have butterflies because you never know what to expect one day to the next, but the important thing is that you take a breath, relax this is YOUR show YOUR brand YOUR product, not anyone else, people respond to posture and body language above all other forms of communication for their initial reactions and gauging how to approach people. we all do it, its a very very very ancient instinct we have. Being too stand offish, or too meek and fearful, or too stiff and robotic can hurt your performance and ability to draw in people, and more over it can intern affect how YOU perform and add to discomfort. For T-girls though this can often show off certain features we may or may not have and want to hide such as certain thicker or defined muscle groups and tendons or what not that can serve further as tells.
5: DONT STARVE YOURSELF.
this really goes for anyone imho, keep healthy be comfortable with what you have.. Im not saying its not good to try and tone up, or take advantage of say the nice perk of HRTs ability to re-assign where fat stacks in the body ( results may very obviously) But dont starve yourself, its not healthy for anyone period and it is a major issue MANY men and women face when it comes to body issues. As a Trans woman however its tempting to want to slim down to fit that size 2, or 4 jeans or have what one may THINK is an ideal women weight, and so some will literally starve themselves as a quick solution. which again aside from the obvious health risks, this also REALLY REALLY REALLY shows off the skeletal and muscular attributes, and will VERY easily give away any male bone or muscle groups in most trans women ( as those with truly androgynous or feminine bone structures are not AS common, more so in older individuals whom may not have started HRT in their mid teens or younger which is more common today in younger trans women -and therefore developed those masculine features ) In the end it's not worth it health wise. work with where your body regulates itself with.. Im 5'11 im about 150 to 160 rage naturally, thats also within the normal weight/height for both women AND men of my height and build and I didn't reach that weight until i started therapy and fixed my diet.. before I was a 127/130 sort and not only was I alot less healthy i was also way l more pronounced in ways that gave me away more easily. to a t-girl actual body fat " not factoring muscle " is a good thing.. but then you go to the other side of weight thats dangerous to your body... so really work with a doctor on this in the end, but please, dont think you need to be a skeleton to be passable or marketable in the industry you dont.
So there , my wall of text to start with, I can clarify or encourage others to add on from their on experiences and hell field questions anyone may have since imho, thats how we learn and nothing is taboo or too far when someone is truly trying to learn.
* edit: I left out things about being directly on cam or what have you since that can be rather specific and not as general as presentation and such is, so we can handle THOSE things as they come



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