about.

TWs: implied CSA, transphobia, outing.From the very start, nothing about Romy Roy's life seemed to be as it should.It was as if her father could tell something was off about her from the moment she first opened her eyes. Though Logan raised all his children with an iron fist, he was uniquely belligerent when it came to Romy, who never could fit into his mould of what a son should be— she was too effeminate, too emotional, seemingly wrong at every turn. This all was far from lost on Romy. She never felt like she understood the life she was supposed to be living. Though she was raised pitted against Kendall, she more often found herself jealous of Shiv, of the sheer fact of her sister's existence. It didn't help that she saw the kind of affection Shiv got from their father, while she herself would be beaten to tears for the slightest infraction; she knew, deep down, that if she were a girl, everything about her life would be so much easier.When notoriously sleazy Brightstar Cruises head Lester McClintock started paying a little extra attention to her, when he and Romy would both go missing for spots of time during Waystar galas and top-level strategy lockdowns at the Roy residence, Logan seemingly couldn't even be bothered to notice. At least, not beyond the behaviors Romy soon began to display: wetting the bed, refusing to eat, lashing out one moment and going completely vacant the next.By the time Romy was thirteen and the increasingly brutal discipline Logan had attempted to fix her with still wasn't working, military school seemed the only solution. However, it was during her hellish time at the all-boys St. Andrew's Academy that the truth of how wrong she felt in her own body became inescapable. She wasn't supposed to be a boy. She wasn't able to be a boy. It had only taken her so long to piece it together because she'd spent practically her whole life being taught that every way she felt different was her own fault, her own shortcomings; when all along she was just being forced to play a role she never could have been able to fit.Through her early teens, Romy began taking whatever chances she could to escape her own life and looming fear of puberty— getting away with longer and longer haircuts, daring to steal a tube of Shiv's lipstick, fawning over Sarah Michelle Gellar with an envy so tangible it almost hurt. This all came to a head when, in the summer of her seventeenth birthday, an increasingly suspicious Logan tore through her room without warning, and quickly discovered her stash of shoplifted makeup and clothes she'd stolen from Shiv's room. One tearful and ear-splitting confrontation later, Romy was disowned on the spot, and kicked out with nothing but the clothes on her back.The family's official cover story was that their poor, troubled youngest son had simply decided the Roy family way wasn't for him, and had gone off to live outside the spotlight with his mother in England. The story was tabloid buzz for all of two days, and then vanished into the ether.Romy had, in fact, gone to be with her mother, who— while far from being completely understanding of it all— helped get her set up with an apartment of her own in the heart of Manhattan. She didn't explicitly cut Romy out, but she didn't quite know how to handle her, either; after everything was set in order, she, too, quietly vanished from Romy's life.Romy dedicated the following years almost entirely to transitioning— focusing on building her new self, and decidedly not focusing on how much she missed her family, how scared she was to be on her own, how aimless she felt without any real life ambitions or purpose. At twenty-five, she had finally reached a place where she felt comfortable enough in herself to socialize more, even sometimes attending the sorts of galas and events she was dragged to as a kid just for some semblance of familiarity; despite it all, she still missed her family.In some cruel twist of fate, that very year, a disgruntled former Waystar employee now dead-set on seeing Logan's downfall leaked to the press why the youngest Roy son had really vanished from the face of the Earth all those years ago. Overnight, the full story of Romy's disownment and transition became headline news, and gone was the anonymity she had enjoyed for her entire adult life.At first, she wanted to bury herself alive, wanted to change her name and move to another country, shattered by being publicly outed so callously. But there was nothing she could do about it now, so she opted for the only other option she could see: she fucking owned it. She amassed thousands of followers on Instagram, made waves on a few red carpets, wore her name loudly and proudly. She'd been through enough, and it was time for her to show up and show out.Now twenty-seven, though far from a media darling on either side of the political spectrum, Romy has gained a following online, some semblance of purpose, and a level of confidence in herself she never would have thought possible. Still alone in Manhattan, she's living her new life back in the public eye to the fullest— though she's still missed her siblings, and has now finally worked up the nerve to reconnect.