Pop singer Samsara is believed to be the first transgender musician to tour schools across the UK, combining empowering pop performances with her own moving experience of surviving the classroom.

At just 21-years-old, Brisbane-born singer Samsara only left school herself four years ago, and now she’s decided to return to share both her music and her story of being a “school survivalist”.

During her appearances, the King’s College London student will perform a number of her feisty pop tunes, before delivering a talk about her time in the classroom, her experience of coming out first as gay and then a trans woman, anti-bullying, mental health and, surprisingly, the importance of mathematics.

Speaking to PinkNews about her school tour, Samsara explains that the vast majority of students she’s spoken to are “very sweet” as they ask questions about her identity.

“I did ask them: ‘How many of you have met a trans person before’ and it was like, only three hands up. I was like: ‘Well now you will have,’” she recalls. Though she has had to field a few difficult questions about gender-affirming surgery and her sexuality, teachers are on hand in case the questions become too inappropriate – though that hasn’t been an issue so far.

“They’re all very sweet, even the ones that didn’t get it. I said, my thing is that I’m not here to say that you have to believe a certain thing, and I don’t think that’s what life’s about. But live and let live and be understanding and it’s no one’s prerogative to make anyone feel a certain way.”

Samsara, who grew up between Brisbane, Singapore and Hong Kong, struggled during her school years. “I had no friends and, because I wasn’t really invited to doing things and having a good time at school, I was terrible. Getting bad grades, hated being there, was a difficult child. Everything was just not going well.”

Yet after moving to Hong Kong, where she transitioned, she experienced a “full 180 moment”.

“People thought I was cool for [transitioning in] the end, which is kind of strange because obviously Hong Kong is quite conservative,” she reflects. During her school talks, she shares her story of how school is something anyone can get through, no matter what they’re going through.

“Part of the talk that I’m giving is [about how it’s] really important to not be that person that essentially decides what someone’s future can be like. If you’re excluding someone and making their school life really hard, you’re limiting their future opportunities,” she says.

During her talk, Samsara also advocates for students talking to their teachers if they’re having a rough time at school, as well as the power of learning maths: “It’s not about the math,” she tells them. “It’s about showing someone that you can commit anything to memory.”

While her experiences at schools have been positive so far, she’s aware of how contentious her mere existence in a school is, considering staunch right-wing efforts to portray trans people as a danger to children.

Meanwhile, in the UK, there have been concerted efforts to ban mentions of transgender identities from the classroom, and policies suggested which would stop trans students from using the bathrooms that align with their gender. Samsara, then, has fears about backlash against her.

“It hasn’t really kicked off yet but like we do feel like it’s seconds away from a parent writing into [the] Daily Mail and being like ‘What is this?’

“It is definitely, constantly teetering [on] the line of: ‘This could go really wrong at any point’.”

The singer began her music career performing school musicals and then writing poetry, and has been grinding for five years to get her songs released. Her latest single, “Put ‘Em Up!”, is an expletive, full throttle response to attempts in the UK to dismantle rights for trans women. “I never let myself believe in being someone that stuff just happens to. If it’s it’s fight or flight, it’s fight,” she says. “I don’t get sad, I get mad.”

Yet for her school performances of the fiery new track, and her other songs, she says she removes expletives and ensure she’s age appropriate. 

“I don’t want to be any representation for the trans community that looks like we’re not safe for young people, because I disagree,” she says. “We’re just people. So it’s really important that whatever I’m doing is on par with that.”

Even with the cost of touring the country and playing such shows, she says it’s worth it if she’s able to bring trans visibility to just one student who needs it.

“The teachers are telling us that there are some kids that were struggling a bit and maybe… identified as different things, and so they’re like, ‘This meant a lot to them’,” she says.

“Even if it’s two kids at a school and they’re like, ‘This is OK and I can see someone like me that’s managed to survive and is doing OK.’ You know what I mean? I think it’s definitely worth it.”

Samsara’s new single “Put ‘Em Up!” is streaming now.

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