We are pleased to release this special episode of Beyond Gender to mark Detrans Awareness Day 2026! Soren Aldaco joins us to discuss life beyond transition, which will be the central theme of this year’s Detrans Awareness Day conference, taking place in Washington, D.C. on March 12th.
Soren is an ambassador for the Independent Women’s Forum and a consultant and researcher focusing on the intersection of digital technology and identity. In this episode, Soren explains how growing up ‘chronically online’ influenced her adoption of a transgender identity and the way social media algorithms locked her into a self-reinforcing feedback loop of content that glamourised transition.
Soren detransitioned not long after she had a double mastectomy at the age of 18. She describes the striking contrast between the disembodied life she’d lived online and the immediacy of the physical pain caused by surgical complications. She explains the ‘pebbles in a barrel’ effect of cumulative questioning that eventually led her to detransition, including the realisation that being female does not have to mean conforming to feminine stereotypes.
She talks about the need to show gender distressed young people that there are multiple ways to understand themselves, rather than presenting medical transition as the only option. For Soren, life beyond transition has meant getting comfortable with discomfort and recognising uncertainty as a part of the learning process. She explains how learning more about human development, identity formation and evolution has given her new frameworks for understanding her experience.
She also expands on her thesis, Scroll, Click, Become: Why Social Media Demands Psychosocial Scrutiny, in which she draws on the developmental theories of Erik Erikson and James Marcia to show how social media impacts identity formation. Theories of development are explored in chapter three of the Gender Framework and you can read a free preview of the chapter here. You can also watch Soren presenting her thesis findings in her talk at the Genspect Bigger Picture Conference in Albuquerque last year:
Soren Aldaco
Follow Soren on X: https://x.com/SorenAldaco
Visit Soren’s website: https://www.sorenaldaco.com/
Read Soren’s thesis, Scroll, Click, Become: Why Social Media Deserves Psychosocial Scrutiny: https://www.sorenaldaco.com/thesis
Soren’s story covered in the Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/what-i-suffered-being-transgender-3d0c891d?gaa_at=
Other References
The Gender Framework: A Comprehensive Evidence-Based Guide for Professionals and Families. (Stella O’Malley et al. 2026): https://genspect.org/resources/the-gender-framework/
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. (Jonathan Haidt. 2024): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0593655036
iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood, and What That Means for the Rest of Us (Jean Twenge. 2018): https://amzn.eu/d/0e0xZ2i0
Childhood and society. (Erik Erikson. 1950): https://amzn.eu/d/02fkhyzX
Identity and the life cycle: Selected papers. (Erik Erikson. 1959): https://amzn.eu/d/028NbDfT
Identity: Youth and crisis. Erik Eriskon. 1968): https://amzn.eu/d/0aIYjIPM
“Development and Validation of Ego Identity Status.” James E. Marcia. 1966. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 3, no. 5.
