User blog comment:Crazybone5000/CHARACTER SUBMISSIONS!/@comment-26485526-20171217010345

Name: Xavier Olmstead

Age: 31

Hometown: Des Moines, Iowa

Occupation: Auto Mechanic

Strategy: Born "Melissa Olmstead," Xavier always hated going to school as he knew he was different from the other students, and especially the girls. The bullying only got worse for him when he entered high school as the popular girls seemed to get more catty, and their insults only grew more hurtful. Xavier struggled with depression and anxiety through his teenage years and early 20s, finally coming out as transgender when he turned 23, although he didn't have his surgery until he was 28. Xavier decided to compete on Survivor, inspired by players like Zeke Smith, Serena Garland (The Cursed Idol), Justine Lemar (Bali), and Brandon Potter (Nikumaroro), hoping it will help him overcome his anxiety and be more at peace with who he is. Xavier hopes to fly under the radar and establish social relationships with his tribe-mates, then playing hard and making those necessary big moves come the merge so that he can build his resume for the Final Tribal Council, but he's willing to be quite flexible with his strategy, follow his gut instinct, and do whatever he needs to do to get to the end and win.

Confessional: Being on Survivor has been a dream of mine for a very long time. Not only am I psyched to be able to play this amazing game, and so thankful for this opportunity, but I truly feel as though this opportunity came at the perfect time of my life. See, I'm transgender, and I've always had terrible anxiety, especially when I was in high school and would get bullied by the catty, popular girls. A couple of years ago though, I finally had my surgery and officially transitioned, but I still deal with that anxiety. Coming out here, I want to overcome that and be more at peace with myself and more comfortable with who I am. I've seen that this amazing show has changed so many lives, and that's what I want it to do for me as well. As much as I want the money, no matter how well I do, I hope I can overcome that anxiety, and maybe even be an inspiration to other trans youth that are going through the same things that I went though by teaching them to never give up no matter how hard things may seem.

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