2007 Hot Issue

Twelve-year-old Isaac Baker can't believe more than 2,000 people have viewed the four-minute video he posted on YouTube this summer. The emotional clip -- titled "Self Portrait (There Once Was a Little Girl)" -- documents his transformation from the girl born as Iris into the preteen boy he's always felt he really was. "I thought my video might help people," he says. "I just hope it helps others understand that they're not alone."

Isaac may be the youngest person using YouTube to celebrate his emerging gender identity, but he's in good company. Dozens of people between ages sixteen and twenty-six have posted video blogs documenting their transitions. Erin Armstrong, a twenty-two-year-old Utah native, has a backlog of sixty-plus videos: One demonstrates how she gives herself biweekly hormone injections; another deals with her Mormon family's reactions. "When I started my blog, I couldn't find other transgendered people on YouTube," she says. "Now it's exploded." Her clips often get upward of 10,000 views. "Before the videos, I was starting to feel a little lost," she admits. "It helps to feel like I have a community that supports me -- even if it's a community I may never get to meet." --JENNY ELISCU