Once a student, trans advocate becomes a teacher to an entire school district

Meet Hazel Edwards, a 21-year-old trans advocate who helped craft the Philadelphia School District's Policy on transgender and gender-nonconforming youth.

Edwards was four months away from graduation at Boys Latin of Philadelphia Charter School in 2015 when the principal called Edwards into his office to discuss ongoing tardiness and absence issues.

What the principal didn't know is that Edwards had been missing classes at the all-boys school because she identified as a girl and didn't feel comfortable there.

"I told the principal I was trans," Edwards said. "The principal was like, 'Whoa. I was not expecting this.' "

Edwards said the principal, a "sweet person who didn't know what to do," brought in another staff member who told Edwards she was a boy and couldn't come to school with her hair or nails done. She said she wasn't kicked out but did feel pushed out.

"I packed up my stuff and never went back to that school as a student," Edwards said.

But later that year, Edwards did go back to Boys Latin — not as a student but as an educator with the Attic Youth Center — to help train 86 teachers on the best practices for working with LGBTQ students.

Noah Tennant, then principal and now CEO of Boys Latin, said he doesn't remember the details of Edwards' departure but confirmed the comment he made at the training.

"It really added a whole extra layer of relevance for us that Hazel walked our corridors and classrooms," Tennant said. "The firsthand knowledge she had was invaluable to us as we thought about how we can grow."

Edwards grew up in Overbrook Park, in west Philadelphia, with her mother, brother, and sister. Her father was incarcerated when she was 9, she said.

For many years, Edwards didn't have the language of trans to express herself. She said it wasn't until she met a trans woman her own age when she was 17 that she fully realized what she'd always felt.

"I was fighting it in mental hospitals and behavioral hospitals," she said. "After meeting that trans person and seeing how happy they were and how unhappy I felt, I said 'OK, now this is a time of life or death.' "

In 2016, Edwards helped University of Pennsylvania professor Amy Hillier, whose daughter is trans, develop a policy for the Philadelphia School District on protecting transgender and gender-nonconforming youth.

Hillier said she was impressed by Edwards' ability to navigate institutions and inspire other young people.

"For someone who has a tough story, she's just so full of love and optimism and energy," Hillier said.