Importance Score: 42 / 100 🔵
Veteran photojournalist Siobhan McCann has photographed numerous individuals throughout her career. However, her most impactful story emerged when she turned her camera inward, documenting her own transformative gender transition journey.
For nearly three years, almost daily, McCann has taken selfies, gazing directly into her smartphone lens with a consistent, neutral expression.
These images have been compiled into powerful time-lapses, visually chronicling her metamorphosis from a man to a woman, clarifying this process for a wide audience on social media.
Her meticulously crafted montages across platforms like Instagram and TikTok showcase evident alterations, such as the removal of facial hair and the evolution from a short haircut to long, red hair.
They also capture subtle nuances, including how hormone replacement therapy has softened her complexion and rounded her facial features, imparting a more feminine appearance.
Yet, the most compelling aspect is not merely McCann’s physical transformation, but her unwavering consistency. Viewers directly witness the 25-year-old’s gender-affirming transition, gaining insight into her enduring essence – a fundamental steadiness that transcends gender.
‘That was fundamentally the purpose of embarking on this entire process,’ she stated.
Born in Plymouth, England, and raised in South Florida, McCann explained that it would have been simpler if she had always known she was ‘a girl trapped in a boy’s body’ – a common assumption among those unfamiliar with transgender experiences.
Siobhan McCann, 25, documented her three-year gender transition, moving from a buzz cut and beard to long red hair.
After college, she became a photojournalist for a South Florida TV station where she experienced the realization of gender dysphoria.
Instead, during her adolescence and early adulthood as a gay man, her self-perception was clouded by ‘a feeling of detachment’ regarding her appearance, a sentiment she struggled to articulate for years.
After graduating from Florida State University and beginning her career as a news photographer at a South Florida television station, she observed that her subjects seemed more comfortable in their own skin than she felt herself.
‘As I navigated daily life and interacted with others, I became aware of a subconscious feeling that had been building – that I was not at ease identifying as a man,’ she recounted.
This sentiment spurred her online exploration concerning male-to-female transition. A series of before-and-after photographs resonated deeply.
‘I suddenly understood, “I am transgender,” and I would find greater happiness as a woman.’
This realization brought relief, she noted, because, ‘It was actionable, something within my power to change.’
McCann characterized the decision to proceed with hormone replacement therapy as ‘easily made, though difficult to execute.’ Around that period in Florida, legislative measures imposed restrictions on adults seeking gender-affirming medical care.
Her certainty regarding her path was so strong that she initiated Estradiol, a female hormone, at 22, merely weeks after acknowledging her transgender identity.
McCann, born in Plymouth, England, and raised in South Florida, consistently felt disconnected from her reflected image before her transition.
In 2022, McCann covered Hurricane Ian while managing the significant damage inflicted upon her family’s Florida residence.
Upon commencing her transition, just three weeks after recognizing she was transgender, she began taking daily selfies, including playful images depicting the gradual removal of her mustache.
It was at that juncture she also commenced taking daily selfies.
Each morning, between waking up and brushing her teeth, she positions herself by a window with natural light and captures a photo without makeup or styling. Her aim is to appear completely natural, enabling accurate tracking of her progress.
McCann’s collection of over 900 selfies, seamlessly integrated using stabilization techniques to align her face across images, presents an authentic and unfiltered portrayal of her transition.
Notably, a 2022 image reflects exhaustion following Hurricane Ian’s impact on her family’s Florida home. Another, from 2023, shows facial eczema. Midway through the series, she appears simultaneously gender-neutral and unequivocally herself.
These shots possess a striking honesty and grounded quality, especially considering that gender affirmation is frequently perceived as a cosmetic transformation rather than a genuine self-revelation.
McCann’s time-lapses chart her journey from initiating hormone therapy while living with her parents in Fort Myers, to relocating to New Hampshire for improved medical care, enhanced career prospects, and proximity to a man she met online in 2023, approximately a year into her transition.
Her partner, 27-year-old sound technician Noah Vandewerf, makes brief appearances in McCann’s morning selfies, sharing kisses and making playful faces in the background.
Since moving to Boston in October, where she is now employed by a local FOX affiliate and resides even closer to Vandewerf, she has not updated her montage. Vandewerf describes his romantic preference as ‘pretty girls’ like her.
She compiled over 900 photos into a time-lapse video. Some photos feature her boyfriend Noah Vandewerf, 27, in brief cameos.
McCann relocated to New Hampshire to be nearer to Vandewerf, a sound technician she connected with in 2023. She also cited a higher-paying job and improved transition-related medical treatment as factors.
Subsequently, she moved to Boston in October to be even closer to her partner and to work at a local FOX affiliate.
‘I appreciate that her former self was equally authentic and crucial in shaping the person she is today,’ Vandewerf remarked.
‘Now, I identify as straight and normal,’ McCann added.
For her, this entails forgoing gender confirmation surgery and voice training to sound more like a cisgender woman.
Although the loss of height and muscle mass has presented challenges in her work—handling heavy equipment such as cable reels, tripods, and TV cameras—she affirms gaining a sense of inner peace and comfort that was unattainable as a man.
‘I am more self-assured, more outgoing. I was never as extroverted as I have become in these last three years,’ she expressed.
The hormones also facilitate emotional release, allowing her to cry more readily and process feelings previously suppressed.
‘It’s not that I’ve transformed into a different individual, but rather a more genuine version of myself.’
Initially, McCann created monthly time-lapses to counteract the ‘doom spiral’ of doubting the efficacy of hormone replacement therapy.
Initially, McCann explained that she produced monthly time-lapses to combat the ‘doom spiral’ of worrying about the effectiveness of hormone replacement therapy.
McCann no longer updates or views her time-lapses as frequently, but hopes they increase awareness regarding gender-affirming care, which faces current obstacles.
‘I would watch them daily to observe my progress when I felt stagnant,’ she recalled.
Subsequently, she experimented with the process, creating the illusion of asymmetrical mustache shaving over weeks, when in fact, she removed it entirely in a single day.
At one point, she humorously framed her transition not as a gender identity transformation but as ‘5 months living next to the 5G tower.’ Concerned male viewers from Russia and the Middle East contacted her in confusion, ‘They missed the joke.’
Humor, she believes, is a tool to ‘defuse and clarify’ the transgender experience ‘for those who may be curious or skeptical.’
McCann no longer regularly updates or watches her time-lapses, preferring to embrace her transformation without constant monitoring. Yet, she hopes her montages contribute to greater understanding of gender-affirming care at a time when access is increasingly challenged.
She also aspires to inspire individuals who were like her past self. She requests they not be named to prevent confusion.
‘Numerous people have commented over the years that witnessing this influenced their decisions. It’s truly touching,’ she said.
This feedback resonates deeply, not only as a trans woman, but also as a journalist: ‘As a body of work documenting something authentic and truthful, I believe it’s the most significant contribution I will ever make.’