‘Yellowjackets’ Star Liv Hewson Feels ‘More Alive’ After Top Surgery: ‘Never Been Happier’
“I cannot tell you the complete, fundamental shift that I have felt in the year since having surgery,” the nonbinary actor told Teen Vogue
Liv Hewson is feeling more like themself after having top surgery.
The Yellowjackets star — a nonbinary actor who plays the teenage version of Vanessa “Van” Palmer on the hit Showtime thriller — opened up to Teen Vogue about getting top surgery after wanting the procedure for a decade.
Top surgery is another name for chest masculinization or feminization. Using one of several surgical approaches, surgeons augment or remove breast tissue, and in some cases reshape and reposition the nipples for an affirming look, according to John Hopkins Medicine.
“I cannot tell you the complete, fundamental shift that I have felt in the year since having surgery,” Hewson, 27, told the outlet. “I knew that I wanted top surgery for a decade; it’s the longest I’ve ever thought about doing anything. The place that I went, I had that clinic’s website open on my laptop for five years. It was this impossible mountain: I want that, but I’m never gonna get it. No one’s gonna let me, blah, blah, blah.”
“To have that be in the past now… I stand differently, I walk differently, I carry myself differently,” they continued. “It feels different in my body than it ever has. I just have never been happier. I’ve never been more centered, I’ve never felt more stable and present and alive. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. It’s taught me a lot. The recovery process taught me about rest, accepting help, and caring for my body as something connected to me rather than separate from me, that I’m in opposition to: This is mine, and I want to take care of it, and I feel good in it and good about it.”
Hewson then shut down any criticism from those who assume they’ll regret the decision for top surgery or that gender-affirming care is similar to mutilation for those assigned female at birth.
“When people talk about gender-affirming surgery using words like ‘mutilation,’ that’s not very nice. Is that how you think about people who’ve had surgery for other things?” they said. “I am not going to entertain anybody’s disgust over my body. It’s my body, it’s healthy and strong and beautiful, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Point blank.”
The actor reiterated that they’re feeling much better after having the surgery, pushing back on comments from naysayers.
“Part of cis people’s fear around gender-affirming surgery is the fear of surgery at all — ‘Oh, my God, but that’s painful and scary!’ My reaction to that is, ‘No, no, you misunderstood. It was painful before. Your worry has kicked in at the wrong time. The right time to be concerned was about the pain I was in before this. I’m great now.’ Everybody else’s concern for me has been on a delay,” Hewson told the outlet. “There’s no need to be concerned anymore. That’s so freeing.”
