top of page

Hologram-U: How Gender Dysphoria Created A Scientific Revolution

Ryan Breadinc

Today we’re joined by Martine Ramirez, the creator of the renowned HologramU.


Great to be here.


Martine’s arrived at the office today in hologram form, which is a great way to advertise the product to us – her physical body is in Portugal at the moment. Why don’t you tell us about HologramU’s story, Martine?

Alright. Well, it all started when I was about 20 years old. I was a struggling university student in the sciences and didn’t have the funds for rent, school, and gender-affirmative care. Going outside became a struggle. My friends and family were supportive, but I still had trouble with groceries and such because my physical dysphoria was so strong. I barely left the house and my mental health suffered quite a bit from it. I just wanted to go outside as me, you know? And the person in the mirror didn’t quite feel like me yet.


I’d been working with drones and holographic technology in my school projects and that’s when it hit me. If I couldn’t go out in this body, why not make the right one?


How does HologramU work?


So it works like a VR game, basically! You put the headset on, activate the drone, and it projects a hologram version of you, modified to fit your preferred presentation if you want, that can go wherever you need to go. You can socialise, go to the park, and generally interact with society in a way you might not be able to otherwise. It’s also been a great asset for the disabled community.


So a university science project turned into an amazing piece of technology that’s changed people’s lives for the better. How do you feel about that?


It’s better than anything I could’ve ever hoped for. And it paid for my gender-affirmative care, too! (Laughs.) No, the real reward is knowing that I can help people live their lives a little easier. We all deserve that.


And HologramU is free worldwide, is that right?


That’s right! We’re largely funded by donations from the gender-diverse community, and we’ve got more than enough to handle production, servers, and shipping the technology to every person that needs it. I really hated the idea of putting something that could save lives behind a paywall, especially when I’d been in the same situation years ago.


And what of the solid colours that the holograms come in? I ended up with a neon yellow hologram. I’m a safety hazard, Martine.


(Laughs.) That’s just a little fun for the people using HologramU. I used to love those little personality tests that you’d get in magazines – remember the ones? You’d answer questions and they’d tell you what flower you were, or things like that. I loved stealing them from my sister’s collection. HologramU users can change their colours whenever they like.


Thank you for letting us interview you, Martine!

About the Author

Ryan Breadinc (he/him) is an up-and-coming writer from Bunbury, Western Australia. A self-proclaimed mess of a human being, he’s found his  passion in writing the weirdest shit he can come up with at the time, and then bullying his friends into reading it. (Just kidding.) He found his passion for books in early childhood, reading horror stories and extremely cheesy supernatural romance drivel when he was much too young for it. It’s stayed with him, and now he makes his own  horror stories and extremely cheesy supernatural drivel. You can find him rambling about half-baked ideas for his next story on social media, or in his office with a few birds yelling at him for attention as he tries desperately to get some work done.


Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

The following is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events is purely coincidental.

bottom of page