Caitlyn Jenner's first appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair is making waves nationally and here in the Quad Cities.
The former Olympic athlete is making headlines for undergoing transgender procedures. Her reveal has given people with similar thoughts someone to emulate.
Jacqueline Mathis is going through some of the same things that Bruce Jenner, who now goes by Caitlyn, went through.
"It means taking hormones to replace it. Taking other things to stop male pattern hair loss," said Jacqueline Mathis, creator of the Quad Cities Transgender Support Group.
Jenner has admitted in interviews that it took her a long time to finally decide to go through with the change from male to female. The wait is something Jacqueline Mathis understands.
"I'm forty years old, I should have done this when I was in my early twenties, late teens," explained Mathis.
But prior to Jenner's decision, some who were considering a gender change had no role model.
"What's really big about Bruce Jenner is he was a man's man. This Olympian, married to beautiful women. This idea of what masculinity is about. And so, the fact that he of all people was struggling with gender identity is what makes people pay attention," said Wendy Hilton-Morrow, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Augustana College.
"It's like a watershed moment. It's something that, fifty years from now, people are going to look back on this," said Mathis.
Jacqueline also leads a Quad Cities transgender support group on Facebook. She faced her own challenges in her decision.
"We all have our own prejudice, and fears, and things that we go through," said Mathis.
But she hopes this changes how people see change itself.
"You've got kids today that aren't afraid. There’s now somebody you can point to and say, 'You know, we're normal,' and that means a lot,” Mathis said.
Jacqueline says the change isn't just emotionally difficult, it's also financially challenging.
A University of Iowa specialist told WQAD that the cost of just a breast augmentation surgery was around $10,000. In some cases insurance may cover the cost of hormone treatments associated with the gender-change process.