Trans Woman Opens up About Shocking Response After Coming Out to Her Co-Workers via Email

The young influencer, who has shared her gender transition on her social media platforms, took the leap after keeping her identity a secret for more than two years.

Jade Mali, a 28-year-old regional manager at a real estate tech company in New York City, publicly came out as a trans woman two years ago and has since been sharing her gender transition with her followers on social media.

However, she only recently came out at her corporate job. In a recent feature interview with People, Mali shared how she often counted down the last five minutes of her shift before finally going home and leaving behind the "massive weight" of hiding her identity.

As soon as she was in the comfort of her home, she could present more femininely and begin to feel like herself again. She first revealed her trans identity to her closest friends and family in 2023. Two years later, she decided to come out to her co-workers.

"This wasn't just like me getting something off my chest or me sharing something behind closed doors," she told People. "This was about to become a very public journey for me." Mali shared that she had long-known something was "very different" about herself.

This was before she joined New York City's corporate world or even moved from her hometown in rural Chicago. During her upbringing, she understood that many people around her "didn't really want me to be that way."

Unfortunately, this led to the development of several social barriers coupled with the inner turmoil that came with presenting in a way that didn't align with her true self. "Having so many barriers to that truth created a lot of internal mental health issues that I had to work through," she said.

She continued, "It just took me a long time to sort of peel back all of these protective layers and all of these masks that I wore to finally reach a place in my adulthood where I was stripped down to nothing."

Therapy helped her unpack those protective layers, and at age 26, she began to feel more comfortable with sharing that she was transgender. She soon began exploring options for her medical transition and met with doctors to disuss facial feminization surgery.

Then, she took the next big step by sharing her identity at her corporate job. "I knew that, appearance-wise, things were going to start changing," she explained.

She continued, "People in corporate America don't know you so deeply, so it was important to me that there was a little bit more congruence between what I was saying I was — which is a trans woman — and how I was presenting in this space."

Despite working for what she described as a "progressive company," Mali knew it would be a difficult process. Because of her position, she interacts with a large number of people at work, many of whom did not know her well.

She began by setting up a meeting with HR and other management-level employees, then shared the news in a single email sent to 130 people at the company. "It was horrifying, honestly," she admitted. "I was so nervous. I was sick to my stomach."

Mali scheduled for the email to be sent while she was on vacation with her parents and sister. For the next several days, she never dared to check her inbox. When she finally did, the response was overwhelmingly positive — something she described as “beyond freeing” to read.

Despite this, however, her first day back at work after the announcement was nerve-wracking. "I do feel anxious and guarded most days," she shared. "I'm just constantly challenging myself to break through that."

Still, it was that same anxiety that pushed her to share her story online. "I genuinely just didn't see anyone that looked like me or had certain physical attributes that I had, and so it kept me really fearful, like, is this gonna work out for me? Can I really venture down this path?" she reflected.

She continued, "By no means am I the first trans girl who's ever shown parts or aspects of their transition on social media, but I do believe that there will never be enough representation of trans people out there."