Nicole Maines

“The first thing that's really important to understand, just when approaching the topic of transgender people, is that the sex you're assigned with at birth is not the same as your gender identity.”

“When we have trans actors play trans characters, people can look onscreen and say, 'OK, this is what trans is.'”

“It seems only fitting that we have a trans superhero for trans kids to look up to. I wish there was a trans superhero when I was little.”

“If I had a super power, I'd want to be able to fly just so I could float around my apartment. Or I'd really like telekinesis because then you'd be able to slam the door on somebody.”

“I studied digital arts and graphic design, and then, at the same time I was studying, I was still doing auditions.”

“I think accurately presenting a trans character means not presenting them as perfect - I think there's been a pressure to do this with trans characters. They can have no flaws because they must represent the entire trans community.”

“Saying it now sounds obvious, but that can be really hard to remember when you're a trans kid who feels like your world's been turned upside down. Just having someone to see in the media is so empowering and validating.”

“I'm so glad that all the work that my family and I are doing is yielding positive results and making actual change!”

“Acceptance at home is fundamental, yes, but frankly, it's just not enough. Trans youth, like most young people, spend the majority of their time at school. If you spent Monday to Friday from 8 to 3 being told that you weren't okay, that you were wrong, how are you meant to think otherwise?”

“Gender is something that occurs in the mind, and sex is something that occurs, you know, everywhere else on the body. And whether or not those two things happen to align - well, if they do, great. If they don't, also great.”

“I always loved theater, growing up, and I was always like, 'Wow, it would be so fun to be an actor.' But my next thought was, like, 'I'm from Nowhere, Maine.' You know, no one's from Maine!”

“We didn't have anyone to tell us that what was going on with me was alright. There was no information about transgender people when we started our journey, but we managed to make it through because of the tremendous amount of love that our family had.”

“Family has been really important to me.”

“My acting and activism go hand-in-hand, and they really support one another.”

“We can be whoever we want. We can do whatever we want. We can be superheroes, because in many ways we are. We've had trans representation in television for a while, but it hasn't been the right representation.”

“This entire issue of transgender people posing a kind of threat to cisgender women in bathrooms is made up. We are just like everybody else - we go into the bathroom, we keep our heads down, we don't look at anybody.”

“I would say my brother got lucky with me. Because we grew up with only boy neighbors, I developed a liking to shoot-'em-up and military video games. I could have come out a lot girlier.”

“Because you never know when a transgender person is going to come into your life, you need to be prepared, and you need to be ready to help them.”

“There are infinite combinations that people can experience, because no two people are alike, and no two people's identities should be expected to be alike. I mean, we see it in fashion: one size does not fit all. And I think it's, you know, completely ridiculous that we've expected people's identities to be one size fits all.”

“What I'm really excited for is to see the evolution of trans characters and see more diverse stories be told, so that every time we're on screen, we're not really playing the part of educator and having to explain the experience to the audience, because it will have already been normalized.”