“I’m sorry,” they said. “It’s just that I can see you’re in there somewhere, in that person, but. . . ” Then they laughed again.
The author's inclusion of quotes throughout the essay where people stammer and seem afraid of finishing their own sentence makes the work feel more realistic than if everybody just said what they thought outright. When people speak this way, the element of underlying, unspoken truth is often more damning than one that's fully spoken.
In girl or boy or neither form, I have always been a fan of excess.
Considering both being a boy and girl as "forms" make these gender roles seem alien to the author, with their excess being a through-line that shows their personality extends beyond any binary concept of gender and identity.
A body is a record or a body is freedom or a body is a battleground. Already, at eight, she knows it to be all three.
A very poetic way of introducing the complexities of life in a human body before the author spends the rest of the essay delving into these struggles. I like how rather than saying "a body is a record, freedom, or a battleground," the author repeats "a body" for each descriptor, which makes each thought feel more complete and personal and like a glimpse into the perspective of someone feeling any of these particular ways.