After Questioning His Gender Identity, Teen Developed an App to Help Others Explore Theirs – PEOPLE

During high school, particularly in the early months of the pandemic, Joshua Tint began questioning his gender identity because, as he says, “I don’t identify a lot with conventional masculinity.”

“It was a time of a lot of introspection, and a lot of people that I knew were starting to transition,” Tint, a now-19-year-old sophomore at Arizona State University, tells PEOPLE.

But, Tint — who ultimately found he is cisgender, a term used to signify that an individual’s gender identity corresponds with their birth sex — discovered it was difficult to find helpful articles or resources “that describe the questioning experience.”

Motivated by this introspective journey, last year Tint created Discover Me, an app to help others questioning their gender identity. Using ‘swipe right’ and ‘swipe left’ options, like the dating app Tinder, Discover Me allows users to try on different names and pronouns to discover what fits.

“I wanted to try and create something that would allow you to interactively explore that in a safe and discreet but also very calming and low pressure way,” he says.

In June, Apple celebrated Tint for developing the app, choosing him as a 2022 SWIFT Student Scholar. The honor included a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, who demoed the app and gave a bit of cherished feedback.

“He was very nice,” says Tint. “And obviously he’s one of the most, if not the most, visible queer person in technology today.” (In 2014, Cook was the first CEO of a major company to come out as gay.)

“So having validation from him that my app was useful is… I mean, there’s not a better person on the planet to hear that from,” added the teen, who is bisexual and has continued to refine the app, which launched Nov. 5 on Apple’s App Store.

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The college student, who plans on earning a master’s and PhD in computer science, says that exploring his gender “was very helpful.”

“Even though I ultimately arrived back at, ‘I’m cis,’ I learned a lot more about myself,” he says, “and how I fit in terms of my self-expression.”

In honor of Computer Science Education Week, Apple is offering free coding workshops in stores nationwide for ages 10 and up through Dec. 12. Those interested in learning more can do so here.

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