 Hi, my name is Frederick Chen, although you probably knew that. I was born in Charleston, South Carolina and lived there for 14 years before moving here in Morristown. My coming of age story is well, coming out story. Yes, fun fact, I'm gay, homosexual, queer, LGBT, gay Asian, whatever you prefer, besides that last one. I was your typical quiet kid in the back of the class that got good grades because haha, he's Asian. But I always felt different, even though I did everything my friends did, you know I read books, played games, hung out with guys, called everything gay, even though I had no idea what that meant because I wanted to act cool, but at the end of the day I knew I wasn't like the other guys. Everyone had crushes, and yeah, I had some too. I thought girls were pretty, but I can never imagine myself dating one for some reason, and I had feelings for some guys, but then I realized no guys had guy crushes at the time. So eventually I learned what it meant to be LGBT, I actually learned it on BuzzFeed with all the coming out videos, and I accepted the fact that I was gay. Everyone was, I thought everyone else wouldn't. Finally I had the guts to say the words I'm gay and freshman year, and lucky for me, all of my friends were nice about it. I told my best friend on the bus, she cried and we hugged, my other friends said I knew it and rubbed it to my face. It was good while it lasted. At school I became a new person, my real self. I changed how I looked and unintentionally became a GBF for many people. It felt like a weight was lifted from my shoulders because I was finally free. Then I had to tell my older sister Eileen. How did it happen? Well, I watched a movie of my sister's bedroom with my girl friend, see the space, and she walked in on us eating burgers. I told her the truth, and apparently she knew since 3rd grade. Now we're closer than ever and she's my other half. Flash forward to the new year, I wanted to start it off as being me for the first time in 14 years because I was done hiding my identity, so I had to tell my parents. I watched as many coming out videos as possible to prepare for the worst outcome just in case it happened. I was on a car ride home with my mom when I asked her what she thought about gay people and it didn't go as I planned because little did I know the Chinese culture is very homophobic. She asked why I was bringing this up so much and I said it right there. It was the opposite of what I wanted to happen. She yelled at me when we argued, eventually going home and I ran out the stairs to prepare for my dad when he came back from work. My sister was with me by my side the whole time. Dad arrived and I heard the loudest whatever then I was called down. He hadn't explained everything, what this meant or I'm like this in the first place. Unfortunately they didn't understand that you can't choose this life. I cried constantly on the other side of the table and even saw my dad shed a tear for the first time in my life. They looked as if I was an abomination, a stranger, and even told me to get out of the house because I wasn't there so many more. I'd rather not go too far in the details. On top of all this of moving, depression and anxiety and unfortunately suicidal thoughts made this way into my life. Flash forward to today, I still deal with these issues, sometimes I get in fights with my dad but my mom has come to understand me. I don't know if I can ever fix my relationship with him though. But life's still good. I'm a photographer now, I have a fan base of over 35,000 people on YouTube and people accept me for who I am. Even if you've never spoken to me, being friendly is enough to feel accepted in this world. Sorry, this story doesn't end here because there's so much more to be told but for now I'll just leave it to be continued.