This week's guest is Tanaya Joshi (she/her). This was SUCH an incredible and powerful conversation! I am so appreciative for Tanaya coming on to let us into her story. She came out 7 years ago, and now has such a happy ending but had quite a challenging journey getting here. She grew up in Mumbai and then moved over to the US at age 11. Navigating India’s historically very anti-queer beliefs greatly impacted her ability to understand her identity, leading to a delay in making sense of the feelings that were there since adolescence. She shares with us about the confusing experience of having such deep feelings for her female friends during adolescence and how this was not reciprocated. She then shares about her process of finding her identity, falling for her now wife, and then the long journey that coming out has been. What was especially powerful about this conversation was how Tanaya let us all in to some challenging dynamics with her parents she’s had to navigate with regards to acceptance and celebration of her identity. Tanaya was so so generous with her story, I felt so honored and touched to be witness to it and feel so grateful she wants to invite you all into this conversation too.

About the guest:
Tanaya is a product designer living in San Francisco, CA with her wife. To join Tanaya's Newsletter, visit: https://tanayajoshi.substack.com. If you're interested in connecting with her via email, you can reach her at tanayarjoshi at gmail.com (combine in typical email format, it is written out here to avoid bots)

For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com or @secondadolescencepod.

Download episode transcript here.

Ep. 20: Tanaya Joshi & the Holding Firm to Who You Are and What You Need