Arizona State student creates gender identity app
(NBC) - For those questioning their gender identity, it can be challenging finding support while working through that process.
For the most part, it has been a challenge for Joshua Tint.
So, the 19-year-old college student came up with a solution.
An app where those who are questioning their gender can explore their identities and pronouns.
Creator's background
"I've questioned my gender identity before, especially when I was in high school a few years ago, and I just came across a total lack of resources," said Tint.
"What I wanted to do is kind of build a safe, discreet, private place for people to explore their own gender on their own terms."
"Hi my name is Joshua Tint. I'm 19 years old, I'm a student at Arizona State, and I'm the founder of Discover Me."
Details about Discover Me
"Discover Me is an app for gender-questioning people so that they can try on different names and pronouns in order to see what suits them."
"So the first thing you see when you open the app is it will prompt you for your name and your set of pronouns. And then once you've entered the name, you can go to a screen that will show you a piece of sample text, and you can swipe through a sample text either left or right if you like it or don't like it - kind of like almost on Tinder where you can swipe left and right and it will show you the ratio of times you swipe left versus swipe right to show you how often do you like this name in context. And you can also change the domain - so you can look at professional speech, casual speech, academic speech - just make sure that whatever name you pick works in a variety of spaces."
"It's meant to be a way for people to experiment, to find their true selves, find what their real pronoun and name is."
Why Tint created the app
"This had been an idea that was on my mind for a really long time."
"A lot of people around the world do not live in a community or do not have the support of family that will respect their real name and their real pronouns. So I think that is where digital space can kind of step up to substitute or augment the lack of in-person community support."
"Technology is going to become a way for people to express themselves, which is really how I feel about Discover Me. It's a way that I've expressed a problem that was close to me and close to people that I know and found some way to solve it and alleviate it."
