 SaverinaScozzari.com readers should be quite familiar with Ken Baker, but even if you're new to the blog, you've probably heard of him. Ken is a celebrity journalist and a former hockey player with quite the story. You can learn everything about him and then some in his memoir, The Late Bloomer: A Memoir Of My Body (previously released as Man Made: A Memoir). The book was released back in 2001 detailing the journey of Ken finding out about a tumour in his brain preventing him from going through puberty until his thirties. At that time, you could read about him in the New York Times, LA Times, and even see him on Oprah! Fast forward to now, the memoir has been re-released and turned into a feature film starring Johnny Simmons, Maria Bello, Brittany Snow, Jane Lynch, J.K. Simmons, Kumail Nanjiani, Beck Bennett and Paul Wesley.
So, how did this all begin? From the outside, it looked like Ken Baker had it all as a hotshot hockey player. However, something just wasn't adding up in terms of the sexual aspect of his life. He was attracted to women, but lacked sex drive and performance (I meant it when I said you would learn everything there is to know about him and more). Ken told me that he spent a lot of time in denial - even when he started lactating after completing a marathon. He eventually discovered that he had a rare brain tumour filling his body with female hormones and had it removed after 6 hours of brain surgery. Finally, Ken felt and functioned like a man. I could never imagine going through something so taboo and having the guts to share my story with the world - I applauded him for that. He said that in the beginning, "his editor continuously encouraged him to go deeper". The process was quite therapeutic for Ken and he hopes that "readers will be able to feel comfortable with themselves". I did struggle for a while to share something I have been dealing with my whole life - kidney disease - which I ended up revealing to all of you a few months ago. Hearing stories like Ken's makes me realize that everyone has something and I wish more would share their experiences. To grab a copy of The Late Bloomer click here, and make sure to check out the film on VOD now! |