Renée's Blog

What does it mean to have a nonbinary voice? How do you navigate gender in a language that genders everything? These questions led me to sit down with Sergio Carazo Cardona, a nonbinary acting and voice teacher in Mexico City and designated Linklater teacher, for a conversation that explores voic...

If you've ever thought, "I just can't do trans voice training," you're not alone. Many people feel stuck when they first start working on their voice. However, there's one simple exercise that consistently disproves this limiting belief: the Key-Oh Exercise. As a gender-affirming voice teacher, ...

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Amanda Wan for her podcast, The Layers of Us, where we explored identity, growth, and the stories that shape who we are. Our conversation dove deep into something that's both incredibly personal and universally relevant: the human voice and its con...

When most people think about voice lessons, they imagine music students learning scales or actors refining projection. But for trans and nonbinary people, voice training is about much more than performance. It’s about finding a sound that feels like home. In my work as a gender-affirming voice t...

A little while ago, I made a video called How to Shout, Laugh, and Cough like a Dude. The comments were immediate: "Okay, but where's the girl version?" Fair point. Because if you've been working hard on voice feminization and then suddenly let out a rough, throaty cough, it ca...

Vocal weight is a key but often overlooked part of how gender is heard in the voice. In this post, I’ll explain what vocal weight means in trans voice training, and share three practical exercises to help your voice sound lighter, heavier, or more balanced. Whether you’re trans, nonbinary, or exp...

What does it mean to put a value on your story? For so many queer and trans people, being asked to share our experiences is a regular occurrence — in classrooms, at conferences, on panels, and in workplaces. Too often, we’re expected to do this for free, as if our voices aren’t worth compensation...

I had the great pleasure of joining Christopher Donoso on his podcast Tell Me ’Bout It to talk about my journey as a trans voice teacher, my path into this work, and why helping trans and nonbinary people find their voices is both deeply personal and deeply joyful. Christopher and I covered so m...

If you’re looking for trans voice training online, you’ve probably noticed: there are a lot of us out here. So how do you know who to trust? And more importantly, how do you know who’s right for you? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when every platform is flooded with voice coaches, speech-language...

Spoiler: it’s not as straightforward as you might think. If you’ve started working on your voice, or are thinking about starting, you’ve probably wondered: “How long will this take?” “When will it feel natural?” “Shouldn’t I be further along by now?” In this episode of Voice Qs from Trans Folks...