Becoming Kaz: A journey of self-acceptance

Having known Kaz Smith since my freshman orientation at Colorado State University, I was granted the opportunity to photo-document his transitional journey over the course of ten months.

During 2020, I focused my time as a photographer for The Collegian to develop one story: “Becoming Kaz: A journey of self-acceptance.” In turn, this led to an entire print edition dedicated to Transgender Awareness Week during the month of November in order to educate our community on transgender issues across the United America and provide resources to students struggling with their own gender identity.

This story evolved from a difficult conversation: What is student media lacking coverage of? Because of this, I took it into my own hands to photograph the story of a close friend of mine, and supplied content minimums to The Collegian that I believed should be published during Transgender Awareness Week in order to educate and provide resources to our community regarding transgender statistics, terminology, and gender identity.