This interview transcript has been edited. To hear the full interview, listen to the discussion with Josie (she/her), Rai Dang (she/they), and Lana Patel (she/her):
Josie Azocar (she/her), the U.S. founder of Tuckituppp, a company that specializes in underwear for tucking, knows how important it is to feel comfortable in your own body. While not everyone wants or needs to tuck, these options can be life-changing for the people who want to try them. We sat down with Josie to talk about being a trans woman from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico; her journey of tucking and the gender euphoria that followed; her experiences as a drag artist and hairstylist; and how she became the founder of Tuckituppp, providing affirming underwear for trans women that can be used by anyone!
And as a gift to the Plume community, Josie is offering 10% off your first order from Tuckituppp when you use the partner promo code PLUME.
Plume: What kind of impact do you want to have as a trans-owned company providing trans affirming products to people?
Josie: This has been a journey, and my wish became a reality. So the impact that I want to create is to help others. I do have to mention that as a trans woman, not everyone has to tuck, but preferably I prefer to. Tuckituppp is for people that have body dysmorphia or for anyone who wants to present themselves, as myself. We all have different ways to live our trans identities. And that’s very important to mention, because tucking is a choice. Whoever doesn’t feel comfortable and wants to embrace their trans identity in a different way, they are always encouraged to do so. Because we don’t want us to do input or impose anything over anybody.
You don’t have to look any particular way. It’s how you want to present yourself.
Plume: That’s true. You don’t have to tuck to be trans. You exist as a trans person, no matter who you are and what you are and the way that you present. So I really love your perspective on emphasizing that this is a choice. I would love to learn your journey and story as well. Or what is life like as a Mexican trans woman in Mexico? And what part of Mexico are you from?
Josie: I’m from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. It is a place that is very dangerous at the moment, pretty much how it looks in the movies. It is unsafe for trans women. We do have rights—Mexico has changed a lot since I was moving forward. Now, there’s more acceptance and more respect. It’s easy to change your name and gender marker, but it still is a work in progress.
For example, hormones are hard to get. It is hard to get a doctor who guides you through the process. It’s a lot of black-market surgeries and stuff. So it’s a little bit more tough to live in Mexico being a trans woman. And we face a lot of obstacles over there. I have to be grateful that since I’ve been living in the United States, I have never faced transphobia and I have never faced discrimination. That is just my journey. I’ve been so lucky that I live this way. Never faced any kind of violence or anything. When I was in Mexico, I did face discrimination and transphobia. Violence—thankfully I was never involved in anything like that. But people can be rude and disrespectful. It’s very hard to be a trans woman in Mexico.
I do have acceptance within my family. I was just down there this weekend, visiting my father. I haven’t seen him in ten years. He finally decided to take that step to accept me and see me as his daughter now.
Plume: I would love to know what your relationship was or is to tucking. And what were the trials and errors that led you to the product that allows you to safely tuck now?
Josie: I always struggle with tucking. Since I started my transition at the beginning, I started wearing men’s underwear, then shorts on top, then spandex. I would be using double underwear or I had to make a note on them to be very tight. I tried multiple things. I tried many brands. I tried homemade gaffs, tights. I tried everything that was on the market, everything that was out there. I would buy anything that someone would tell me about, because I always wanted to look a certain way. And I couldn’t find anything until 2019.
Then, I found an Instagram post about Cris Cabana, a Brazilian designer who made this unique underwear in the 1990s. I got my package and honestly—oh my God—it was so good. The product was amazing. It was my confidence. I could wear swimsuits. I could finally wear my leggings to work, my tight dresses, everything. I said, “Wow, this is so good. I have to share with my friends. They sometimes struggle, too.”
Everything started from there. I didn’t know that so many of us were going through the same struggle with tucking. Tuckituppp became a space to help each other. I made a website and imported this great design created by Cris Cabana, and little by little, all the girls started referring me.
Plume: I would love to know how being a hairdresser and also just your love of hair and your love of clothes and doing drag, how has that been connected to you coming out and also just you and your transness too?
Josie: It gave me an opportunity. Gave me hope that people can be accepting and loving. And later on, I focused on what I really like, which was sales, which is what I do today as my main job as a manager in retail. And I connect with people every day by smiling—simply by greeting them and being courteous and keeping a positive attitude. And when I was a hair stylist, it was about the same.
I get to boost people’s confidence by doing their hair and just showing that smile, always. I hear the stories, because sometimes people just want to be treated as people. And they want someone to listen to them and listen to their experience, to their stories.
Plume: Who is one person that has inspired you on your journey?
Josie: Oh, my mom. She always has encouraged me to be myself and to be happy. And that’s what I have always been trying to do. She’s actually my inspiration. She’s a very hard working woman. She always did everything to give us anything. And she has always been supportive of me. Doesn’t matter what my decision was, she was always there for me and she’s still there for me. And I’m so blessed to have my mom and her being on my side.
She helped me to be the person that I am today because she gave me my education. She gave me a roof to live under. She was always very accepting of the LGBTQ community, since she had friends who were part of the community, before I even accepted myself. So my mom is my role model. I always want to be like her, this woman with long hair with a good figure. Just like her.
Honestly, I am so blessed because I know a lot of my friends struggle with that. If you don’t have your family’s acceptance, it is hard to live through. But then if you find acceptance within your friends and you discover that your friends can be your new family—that always has helped me to support my friends and to help them have that happiness in another way. At the end of the day, I am lucky. But some people don’t have that luck, and I understand how hard it is being without the love of your parents. So that’s why we have to be there for one another, and be one big family. And I always try to be there for any of my sisters, because at the end of the day, we are sisters and brothers, growing up within the same community.
