(NEW YORK) — Gender-affirming hormone therapy improves the mental health of transgender adolescents and teenagers, a new study released Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine showed.
The study tracked over 300 trans and nonbinary youth across the country for two years as they took testosterone or estradiol to help their physical appearance align more closely with their gender. The participants were in various stages of puberty.
The report found that depression and anxiety symptoms decreased for trans adolescents and teenagers, and life satisfaction increased after starting and continuing gender-affirming hormone therapy.
Many studies over the past few years have reached similar conclusions, but this is one of the larger studies to date.
The findings highlight what activists say are the dangers of denying trans adolescents and teens gender-affirming medical care, which has been under attack in states across the country.
At least 11 states have introduced bills for the 2023 legislative sessions that would ban or restrict the use of hormone therapy for trans people. States like Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Arizona, Florida and Texas have implemented policies or laws that restrict gender-affirming care broadly for trans youth.
Some introduced bills no longer affect just minors — some states like Oklahoma introduced prospective bans into adulthood, restricting access to this care until the age of 26.
Top national medical associations such as the American Medical Association, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and American Academy of Pediatrics support gender-affirming care as safe, effective and proven to save young people’s lives.
The team behind this study is also researching the effects of puberty blockers, which have also come under scrutiny by legislators.
Puberty blockers suppress puberty for transgender children so they don’t have to experience the effects of puberty that do not align with their gender, as defined by Planned Parenthood.
That data has not yet been released. However, puberty blockers are considered to be a safe treatment for children, and have also been used for non-transgender related care.
(NEW YORK) — Pharmacies have announced they are dropping their restrictions on how much over-the-counter cold medication for children that customers can buy.
Due to a respiratory virus season that began earlier than usual — followed by an earlier and unprecedented demand of certain medications — national pharmacy chains limited purchases of Children’s Tylenol, Motrin and ibuprofen in some locations.
However, now that cases of the flu and RSV have been declining steadily and supply challenges are improving, Walgreens and Rite Aid told ABC News they are lifting their caps on pediatric fever-reducing medications.
As of last month, Walgreens was limiting online purchases to six per customer while Rite Aid was limiting to five per customer, although there was no limit in store.
“Walgreens has worked diligently with our suppliers to ensure we have enough supply to meet customer demand nationwide,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “Due to the improved in-stock conditions of over-the-counter pediatric fever-reducing products, we have removed the online-only purchase limit. This was originally put in place to prevent excess purchasing behavior.”
Meanwhile, Rite Aid said it will lift the limit it had for online purchases “by the end of the week.”
Not everybody’s ready to lift their caps yet, with CVS telling ABC News there are currently no plans to lift their purchase limit of two boxes of medication both online and in store.
Kroger placed a cap of two pediatric pain medications and four cold and flu items per customer but has not yet announced a change in plans. Kroger did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The Consumer Health Products Association, which represents the makers of over-the-counter medicines and dietary supplements, said manufacturers will continue to produce the drugs and get them on shelves as quickly as possible.
“Manufacturers are still producing 24/7 and shipping children’s pain and fever reducers to retailers, with no intention of letting up,” Anita Brikman, senior vice president of communications & public affairs at the CHPA, told ABC. News.
“We were heartened to see Walgreens lifting the purchasing limits due to ‘improved in-stock conditions.'”
According to Brikman, sales of over-the-counter pain relievers and fever reducers were up 30% in December 2022 compared to December 2021.
She noted this is “less of an increase in unit sales” than in November 2022, when sales were up 65% compared to November 2021.
Brikman added that demand “may also be lessened thanks to the continued decline in reported flu cases since the numbers peaked the first week of December.”
Experts previously told ABC News that if customers cannot find brand-name medication to look for generic options.
Additionally, if parents cannot find children’s medication, they should not give them adult medication because medicine for children is dosed based on weight and age. Giving them adult doses can have serious consequences.
“Parents should be cautious and don’t give your child a full adult dose because that could be harmful to them,” Dr. Stephen Schondelmeyer, a professor of pharmaceutical care and health systems at the University of Minnesota, told ABC News in December. “Do not use aspirin. If you find that the shelves are empty at the pharmacy, ask your pharmacist what alternatives are there or consider looking at other pharmacies as well, and the pharmacist can advise you on what the appropriate dose is for a child.”
(NEW YORK) — Calorie restriction may be more effective at promoting weight loss than intermittent fasting, based on findings from a multi-site study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers at three major health care systems — Johns Hopkins Health System, Geisinger Health System and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center — studied weight trends, daily food intake and sleeping/eating time intervals charted in a mobile app over the course of six months for 547 adult men and women with a range of medical conditions and Body Mass Index (BMI) categories.
These weight trends were compared to weights and heights recorded during previous clinic visits, up to 10 years before the study enrollment. Meal sizes were categorized as either large (more than 1,000 calories), medium (500 to 1,000 calories) or small (less than 500 calories).
The average daily number of large- and medium-sized meals led to weight increases, the study showed, suggesting that overall caloric intake remains a key contributor to weight gain. In comparison, the total number of small meals was predictive of weight loss over time.
Additionally, the time interval between the first to last meal was not associated with weight change, according to the study. On average, this time interval was approximately 11 hours for adults enrolled in the study.
For the purposes of this study, intermittent fasting was defined by time-restricted feeding schedules. This allowed researchers to compare weight trends during sleep and feeding times, dividing up a 24-hour period into time spent sleeping, waking up to first meal, time spent between first to last meal, and time spent between last meal and sleeping.
“Our study does not support the use of time-restricted eating as [a] strategy for long-term weight loss. [Limiting] the frequency of large meals could be more effective in losing weight, but clinical trials are needed to confirm our findings,” said the study’s first author, Dr. Di Zhao, a researcher in the department of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research.
However, it should be noted that healthy, sustainable weight loss should be part of an individualized plan, and that these study findings are not universally applicable.
“The decision to lower calories or try intermittent fasting should really be individualized to the person. [Some] people find intermittent fasting easier to lower their calories and others find they just get too hungry when they fast and then they eat too much during their non-fasting time,” according to Liz Weinandy, a registered dietitian at The Ohio State University Medical Center and instructor of practice at OSU in Columbus, Ohio.
Instead, efforts should be focused on consuming a balanced diet, refraining from “excluding a specific food group or macronutrient. These diets do not work long-term and if they do work, they are generally not healthy,” Weinandy said.
(NEW YORK) — Moderna’s respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, vaccine for older adults was about 84% effective at preventing serious illness, according to data from a late-stage trial published Tuesday.
Adult patients in the clinical trial appeared to tolerate the vaccine well and there were no safety concerns identified, the data showed.
The company said it will ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval in the first half of 2023.
Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and GSK have also announced promising results for their respective RSV vaccines in older adults. The FDA is expected to decide whether or not to approve both vaccines in May 2023.
There is currently no approved RSV vaccine for any age group, but pharmaceutical companies — including Moderna, Pfizer and GSK — have seen promising results in late-stage trials.
Cases of RSV began appearing earlier than usual this year across the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, peaking in early November before turning down.
Symptoms can include fever, coughing, runny nose, sneezing, wheezing and a decrease in appetite, per the CDC.
RSV leads to mild illness in most people but can cause severe illness in some young children and older adults.
The CDC says older adults aged 65 and above are at high risk for severe infection from RSV, particularly those with chronic lung or heart conditions and weakened immune systems.
Each year, between 60,000 and 120,000 older adults are hospitalized and between 6,000 to 10,000 die due to RSV infection, according to data from the CDC.
“Today’s results represent an important step forward in preventing lower respiratory disease due to RSV in adults 60 years of age and older,” Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, said in a statement. “These data are encouraging and represent the second demonstration of positive phase 3 trial results from our mRNA infectious disease vaccine platform after Spikevax, our COVID-19 vaccine.”
Bancel said full results will be published at an upcoming infectious disease medical conference but did not specify which one.
This is not the first time researchers have attempted to develop an RSV vaccine.
In the late 1960s, a vaccine was produced in which the virus was inactivated with formalin, a chemical that kills viruses. The shot was given to children in Washington, D.C., but 80% of those immunized became sick and two children died, according to a journal article published in Nature.
Studies found that the vaccine did not generate enough antibodies to fight off the virus and instead triggered an overactive immune system response.
(NEW YORK) — A California woman is speaking out after a routine manicure resulted in her developing an infection that turned into a form of cancer that can be cured, especially when caught early..
Grace Garcia shared her experience on social media last month.
“It all started w/Mani/Pedi that went wrong! Nail tech cut me with unsterilized tools! 💅🏻🩸 which within 6 months turned in to CANCER!!” she captioned her TikTok post.
Garcia told Good Morning America her ordeal first started in November 2021, when she went to get a manicure ahead of Thanksgiving. It was supposed to be like any other manicure appointment she’d been getting for the last two decades but it turned out different this time.
“It seemed harmless until it wasn’t,” Garcia said.
“As the technician was cutting my cuticle, she cut me,” she recalled. “It was a deep cut and I remember being very upset about it.”
A few days afterward, Garcia said she thought the cut on her ring finger had started to heal but it still felt unusual.
“It felt as if I couldn’t bump my finger into anything,” the mom of three said. “I couldn’t use it. I couldn’t type well. It felt tender to the touch.”
For months, Garcia said she dealt with the pain and followed up with her doctor. Then, in April 2022, about five months after she first received the cut, Garcia was referred to UCLA Health dermatologist Dr. Teo Soleymani for a biopsy.
“It came back as a squamous cell carcinoma, which is a very common form of skin cancer,” Soleymani told GMA of the biopsy test result. “But interestingly … she didn’t have any of the traditional signs … hers was HPV-driven. And it’s an interesting thing to see.”
HPV, or human papillomavirus, is a common virus, one that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say “nearly everyone” will get “at some point in their lives.” The CDC estimates over 42 million Americans currently live with some form of HPV infection and approximately 13 million will get infected with HPV each year.
Some strains of HPV can also lead to cancer, such as genital, head or neck cancers, while others can cause warts on various parts of the body. Most HPV infections will not lead to cancer.
The virus is spread through skin-to-skin contact or skin-to-mucosa contact. In very rare cases, contaminated equipment has been thought as a possible means of transmission for the virus.
“Grace had a very obvious injury that allowed a portal of entry for the higher risk strain to kind of get in there,” Soleymani said. “The reason we don’t see it in places like our hands or our face or anywhere where we have thick skin is generally, our skin has a top layer that’s pretty protective.”
HPV vaccines can prevent more than 90% of the cancers caused by HPV but Garcia had not been vaccinated prior to her diagnosis. The CDC recommends that children as young as 9 and some adults up to age 45 get the vaccine.
Soleymani said, “I think everybody should be vaccinated because it’s one of the few simple ways that we can reduce cancer.”
Today, Garcia is cancer-free after receiving treatment, including Mohs surgery, the same type of procedure first lady Jill Biden received last week to remove a cancerous lesion from near her eye.
People can also avoid infections by making sure tools used at a nail salon are cleaned and sanitized before sitting down for a manicure.
(NEW YORK) — Mia Mainville was at a Denver bar surrounded by friends when she said a stranger put drugs in her drink on New Year’s Eve.
“I was not able to focus on anybody, I was not able to have full control of my body,” Mainville told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Mainville said she was taken to the E.R. by ambulance where doctors told her that hospital toxicology tests are not able to detect certain illicit drugs, including some that are frequently used to spike drinks, and instead referred her to the Denver Police Department.
“The officer had told me that because I had told him I wasn’t assaulted, that there wasn’t a reason for them to file a report,” said Mainville.
Many date rape drugs, which are any type of drug used in a rape or a sexual assault, can make you feel drunk without consuming alcohol and can affect memory. Nearly 11 million women in the United States have been sexually assaulted while drunk or drugged, according to the Office on Women’s Health.
Mainville is not the only woman who is speaking out, several other women are claiming that police are not taking their cases seriously, according to reports from ABC affiliate KMGH-TV.
“I had about 70 women reach out to me telling me about the same thing had happened to them,” said Mainville.
Women like Colleen Mitchell, who said she believes she was drugged at a Denver bar in December.
“I contacted the police,” said Mitchell. “They told me that basically no crime has occurred since I made it home safe and that no assault occurred.”
Denver police told ABC News it has launched an internal investigation into how both Mainville and Mitchell’s cases were handled, adding, “If an individual believes they have consumed a substance that caused them to become unconscious… They should report the incident to the police.”
“There’s not an antidote for date rape drugs that is widely available to the public,” said Dr. Stephanie Widmer, an ABC News medical contributor and toxicologist. “So it’s really important to seek medical care right away, particularly if you don’t know what you’ve been exposed to.”
How to stay safer in social situations
According to the Office of Women’s Health, some ways to stay safe at places like bars or parties include:
Be aware of drinks in punchbowls or other containers that can be easily “spiked”
Don’t accept drinks from other people
Open your drink yourself
Don’t drink anything that smells strange
Don’t drink more than you want to
Get help right away and find a friend who can help you get to a safe place
Look out for your friends and ask them to look out for you
(NEW YORK) — In the wake of the Golden Globes last week, several celebrities said they have tested positive for COVID-19.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Pfeiffer are among the names who revealed they contracted the virus falling the awards show.
In response, the Critics Choice Awards, which was held on Sunday, announced that all attendees would be required to submit a negative COVID-19 test before entering the venue, according to Deadline.
Public health experts said the news of actors and actresses falling ill is not surprising due to the relaxed regulations and people gathering indoors.
“This is sort of a window into what our future holds,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “I mean, this is not unexpected. You have indoor gatherings during a time when a lot of virus is circulating, whether it’s cold or flu, and proximity without masking and especially if there was also no testing requirements.”
He continued, “It’s not surprising that you’re going to have active transmission of viruses, one of the many respiratory viruses that are circulating now.”
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, weekly COVID-19 cases have topped 400,000 for the last six weeks, which are figures not seen since late September although the overall number has declined from last week.
Meanwhile, weekly COVID-19 deaths are trending upward with 3,907 reported as of Jan. 11, CDC data shows, although some of this may be due to reporting lags over the holidays.
Additionally, CDC data shows that while flu cases are declining the cumulative hospitalization rate of 54.4 per 100,000 is 1.8 times higher than the highest figure recorded at this point in the year dating back to the 2010-11 season.
It is well known that infected individuals can expel droplets that move throughout an entire indoor space and even linger after a person leaves the area.
What’s more, with lack of ventilation — be it high-efficiency particle arresting filters or open windows — and people gathered closely together with no masks, Brownstein said it’s no wonder people contracted COVID.
“We sort of have to decide collectively, as a society, what we want to do to keep transmission down,” he said. “Obviously, we know mitigation strategies help and then we recognize that we still have a lot of vulnerable people that are succumbing to COVID.”
Brownstein added, “But I think the idea of testing pre-gathering is still a very good idea, so it makes sense that the Critics Choice Awards used that as a tool to help limit the amount of risk of transmission at the event.”
Brownstein said this doesn’t mean that every event will turn into a super-spreader or that it signals trouble for the U.S. Rather, Americans shouldn’t let their guard down.
“As much as people want to assume that we’ve moved on from the pandemic, the pandemic hasn’t yet moved on from us,” he said. “We’re still dealing with events where that super-spreading can occur and there’s a bivalent vaccine out there that can lower your risk of severe illness and help reduce your risk of severe consequences and deaths from this virus.”
(NEW YORK) — A blood test under study may soon be able to help many patients with colon cancer decide whether they need chemotherapy after surgery, or if they can safely skip it.
The results, which oncologists described as promising, were published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Currently, many patients with surgically removable colon cancer are automatically given additional chemotherapy, but doctors can’t perfectly predict who will or will not benefit from this. Although the blood test may need to be studied further before it becomes part of standard medical care, oncologists see it as a promising tool that could help many patients safely skip chemotherapy — and its harsh side effects.
“Potentially, worldwide, we’re talking about millions of people,” said Dr. Alok Khorana, director of the gastrointestinal malignancies program at the Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved with the study. “Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in the country, affecting both men and women. Worldwide, it’s also very common and is rising in many countries where in the past, it was not that common.”
The blood test, sometimes called a “liquid biopsy,” detects small fragments of genetic material called circulating tumor DNA (or ctDNA), which are shed by the cancer into the blood stream.
In the recently published study, researchers looked for the presence of this genetic material in more than 1,000 patients who had undergone surgery to remove stage II, III, and IV colon cancer. A positive test suggests there are still residual cancer cells in the body. This study showed that patients with positive tests likely need additional chemotherapy, whereas those with negative tests might be able to safely skip the taxing and toxic treatment.
“What the study showed was that the people who had the liquid biopsy, or ctDNA, being positive after surgery, had an extremely, extremely high chance of recurrence…10 times higher risk compared to people who were ctDNA negative,” said Dr. Suneel Kamath, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who was also not involved with the study. “What’s interesting too was that was by far the strongest factor. We use a lot of other factors, like how progressive the tumor is and how many lymph nodes are involved.”
Currently, oncologists use other clues — such as the characteristics of the tumor itself — to help them gauge which patients need additional chemotherapy. But this new study suggests the blood test would be more accurate, Kamath said.
“Even though we’ve been relying on those for many decades, all of those were far, far less predictive of who was going to have their cancer return,” Kamath said.
Still, experts said, more research is needed before this test becomes a standard part of medical care.
“The impact of this individual paper should be taken into the context of other papers that have recently come out and are ongoing…It has a meaningful impact in allowing us to not only identify high-risk patients, but also showing that giving them chemotherapy after the surgery is beneficial,” said Khorana.
A June 2022 trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine also showed that ctDNA can be safely used to guide chemotherapy decisions in stage II colon cancer. This study shows that there is also benefit for stage III and stage IV cancers.
And more research studies are ongoing.
“The findings of this study are provocative, but not sufficient to just yet change clinical practice,” Khorana said, “although I foresee that that’s going to happen very, very soon in the near future.”
He added, “I would encourage patients to join those trials because that is the best way to find out…whether drugs work or not, and whether tests work or not.”
(NEW YORK) — Actor Tyler James Williams is fresh off his first Golden Globe win for his role as Gregory Eddie on Abbott Elementary. While the actor celebrates a high point in his career, he said he is also celebrating his low points, revealing his journey living with Crohn’s disease.
“Imagining the worst thing that could possibly happen is one of my best qualities,” Williams recently told Men’s Health.
The actor opened up to the magazine about living with Crohn’s disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of the digestive tract. He said he first discovered he had the disease in his early 20s while he was trying to put on muscle weight to land a TV role.
“I was really pushing my body to the limit. By the time December hit, it just crashed. Everything shut down,” Williams told Men’s Health.
Williams reportedly underwent emergency surgery to remove 6 inches of his lower intestine, but his intestines were unable to heal back together and sent him into septic shock, a life-threatening condition caused by an infection.
“The last thought I had was, ‘This could be it. If this is it, I’m not happy. I worked a lot. I did a lot of things. I didn’t enjoy any of this. This can’t be it,'” said Williams, who began his career as a child sitcom star in Everybody Hates Chris.
Williams said his brother Tyrel is also living with the disease. The actor said he turned to focus on a healthy lifestyle that included giving up alcohol, coffee and processed meat — all of which trigger Crohn’s disease flare-ups.
“I had to learn how to stop making a dramatic change happen really quickly and learn how to have a better relationship with my body,” Williams said. “The important thing for me, and those like me, to remember is that longevity is a big part of the game. If you can’t [stay strong] and be healthy, there really is no point.”
What is Crohn’s disease?
More than half a million Americans are living with Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel condition that can lead to persistent diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss and malnutrition. If left untreated, the disease can potentially lead to life-threatening complications, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
There is currently no cure for the disease, but it can be treated into remission with medicines, bowel rest and surgery to decrease inflammation and prevent flare-ups of symptoms, according to the NIDDK.
Crohn’s disease can develop at any age, but is more likely to develop in people between the ages of 20 and 29, who may have a family member with the disease and those with other risk factors like smoking, the NIDDK said.
To diagnose the disease, doctors typically use a combination of tests, including a physical exam and lab tests.
(NEW YORK) — Raven Sutton is making history as the first deaf contestant on Netflix’s The Circle.
She hopes her stint on the hit reality show can not only empower the Deaf community, but also change the perspective of viewers who may never have seen a deaf person on their TV screens before.
“There are a lot of hearing people who have this misperception of us, about what the Deaf community is or what the disabled community is,” Sutton said in an interview with Good Morning America. “So they put us in this box, in this isolated view, that we can’t enjoy life. And that’s just simply not true.”
In The Circle, which Netflix calls a social experiment, contestants communicate solely through a “voice activated social media platform” in an effort to become the most popular among the group and win $100,000.
Sutton said she joined the show because, as a fan, she had seen how accessible the show could be for a deaf contestant.
Sutton used American Sign Language on the show, and her interpreter and best friend Paris translated aloud for the audience and for the voice activated system.
Using ASL, her native language, was not only important because it’s what she’s most comfortable with — she also wanted deaf viewers to feel seen.
“I wanted to use my language for my community … Paris was there to interpret for you all, for hearing people who don’t know sign language,” she said. “The accommodation is for you.”
Sutton continued, “[Deaf people] want to see someone like themselves use their language on TV. We’re always used to reading captions on TV, and all the shows. But when you have a chance to see someone who looks like yourself, who uses the same language as you, we’ve got many people that were so excited to see themselves on screen.”
Twenty-six percent of Americans have a disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and yet media advocacy group GLAAD found that only 3.5% of characters on broadcast scripted series have disabilities.
Being on The Circle allowed Sutton to give viewers a nuanced portrait of the Deaf community, she told GMA. Sutton is a dancer who loves to party, laugh and flirt – and makes sure people know she’s proud of her Deaf culture.
She reigned over The Circle kingdom a couple of times on the show as an influencer, becoming one of the most popular players among the competition.
“This is why I say you’ve got to normalize deaf people on TV. You’ve got to, and it cannot be related to their deafness,” Sutton said. “It’s not about me as a deaf person. I’m just playing the game, and I just happen to be deaf.”
Audiences see Sutton living in the apartment, messaging and laughing with her friends, and “doing all the normal things that other people do” in The Circle.
“I’m living my life,” she said. “That’s important for me to show, like, ‘Wow oh, she’s deaf. Yes, she has a disability, but so what?'”
Sutton has received a lot of questions online about why she didn’t use a keyboard to participate in the competition, or why she didn’t speak aloud herself.
In a tweet on Jan. 3, she responded to those questions.
“Yall do know that since I am the first Deaf contestant on #TheCircleNetflix that there is going to be a huge number of Deaf people watching right? Why would I play the game with just a keyboard?” she wrote. “I’m using ASL for my community. And Paris is helping YOU understand. Simple.”
Those types of inquiries are nothing new for Sutton. Throughout her life, she said, she’s battled questions about being a dancer, as well as whether she was lying about being deaf, among other things.
“Because of the things that I can do, they said, ‘Well, deaf people can’t dance, they can’t speak. It’s impossible for them to listen to music,’ and they denied me of my identity,” she said. “But obviously, I’m in the Deaf community … and I see not only myself, but other deaf people doing the same things I’m doing, if not more.”
Now, her role on the show appears to have sparked conversation about deafness. Sutton said the feedback demonstrates the importance of media representation — so people without disabilities can learn about and fight the stigma against deaf and disabled people.
As Sutton awaits the reaction from viewers as the season finale nears, she hopes fans take away that “just because I’m deaf, [it] doesn’t mean I don’t have a lot of similarities [with] everyone else.”
“It doesn’t mean that I don’t flirt, that I can’t be thirsty over a guy,” she said, laughing. “It doesn’t mean that I don’t dance, that I don’t twerk or shake my ass. It doesn’t mean that I can’t be strategic, that I can’t play a game for money. It doesn’t mean that I can’t be authentically myself.”
