While inviting the whole world into something as personal as one’s own journey with their gender identity is a big undertaking, Brendon said the decision was a rather easy one to make. “The big reason that I felt comfortable telling my story is because I knew that when I was just starting to discover who I was and figuring out myself, I would have wanted a story like mine that I could go and see,” they said, “and that I could look back and be like, ‘Other people have gone through this’ and just kind of have that support, like I’m not alone in what’s going on.”
Born of that decision was Draw With Me, a stirring documentary short that paints an intimate portrait of Brendon and their family. The 24-minute film, produced by Ithaka Films in partnership with The Trevor Project, pulls no punches in detailing a coming-out journey that challenged the entire family and led Brendon to suicidal ideation before their art and the growing support of their household saved them, setting them down a path of advocacy.
Reliving the totality of their story on camera at such a young age—they were only 16 when the film was shot—wasn’t always the easiest. “There were definitely moments where I had to kind of like center myself before speaking,” Brendon said. “Because, obviously, it talked about pretty dark subject matter. Constantine helped create this space [where] it was perfectly okay for me to say, ‘Hey, I need a minute to just center myself and…deal with things.'”
