Lilith Wiksten Oral History Interview

Wiksten begins by describing her childhood in rural Northern Idaho, facing abuse both at home and at school, and how she responded to that by creating a tough exterior personality. She didn’t have any role models until she met her boyfriend, a trans man, who helped her become more comfortable with expressing herself and exploring femininity, which was shown through her object that she brought, a pair of his leggings. She shared how she found this really euphoric, and then went on to share other euphoric and dysphoric experiences. She shared that she has felt most at home in her body since taking HRT, as it has helped her to be comfortable seeing herself when she looks in the mirror. She then talked about her experiences at OSU, both positive and negative. The positive including moving to a more welcoming and diverse community, but also included more negative experiences, including achieving micro fame at OSU as “the Griddy Kid,” being invited to join and then kicked out of a fraternity, and creating a support group for trans and nonbinary people with the Pride Center, only for it to be canceled. She then finished the interview by talking about her major, psychology, her passion for it, and particular theories of interest to her.

Lilith Wiksten is from Northern Idaho and is studying psychology at OSU. At the time of the interview, she identified as a trans woman.

This interview was conducted in support of interviewer Jozie Billings' honors thesis project titled, "Beyond the Binary: Multimodal Oral Histories of Navigating Gender and Finding Identity from Gender-Diverse and Cisgender Students." More information about that project is available in the finding aid for the OSU Queer Archives Oral History Collection (OH 34).