Kim Petras spoke openly about her trans identity and childhood gender therapy treatment in a wide ranging interview with The FADER ahead of the release of her new album, Detour (out today, May 29, 2026).
"I talked about [my transition in the German media]. I was 12 talking about it, which I kind of regret because privacy was really blurred," Petras told The FADER. "[But] I was really unashamed of talking about it because I was a kid and I was like, 'This is the way it is.'" Petras is referencing her first stint with the public, when German media documented her gender transition at the age of 12 and dubbed her one of the youngest people to undergo gender treatment.
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The conversation happened in connection to her newly released Detour track "Brutalist" which compares Petras's gender treatment to a brutalist post office she used to admire with her architect father before it was demolished and replaced.
"Brutalist," which Petras released a new music video for today, is a strikingly honest reflection on Petras's complex feelings surrounding her childhood journey. "My dad's an architect, he used to show me it / When he would drive me to the psychiatry /Again and again, didn't come back a man / I guess I ruined it," she sings, referencing the opinion of others who describe gender transition as destructive. "I have people saying I ruined my body and I ruined my life. They don’t know me at all," she told The FADER about those voices.
Petras's open reflection and presence in public life as a trans artist is a strong message to the world and trans youth, Petras says. "I’m happy I can stand for [the idea that] trans kids can transition and then be a grown up and happy and make [those] choices. I made the right choices that I’m proud of to this day."
Read the full excerpt of Petras discussing "Brutalist" below, and read the entire interview with Petras here. You can watch the full conversation with Petras on Youtube here or below.
The FADER: Can you share the thoughts and feelings that were going through your mind as you were writing "Brutalist?"
Kim Petras: It’s the story of my dad and I driving around in Germany to get my hormone therapy when I was a kid. He used to show me buildings along the way and teach me about architecture. There was this particular brutalist post office that we were obsessed with. It was something we could bond over. We came back to the city every few months or so to get psychological assessments of how [the treatment is] going. I’m from a really small town so we used to have to drive to a big city, which in that case was Hamburg in Germany. [One day we noticed] they knocked [the post office] down and built an apartment building that was a classic modern apartment building. We were like, “Ugh, they ruined the city,” you know?
In recent years, there’s been so much talk about … honestly from the beginning of my transition when I talked about [my transition in the German media]. I was 12 talking about it, which I kind of regret because privacy was really blurred, [but] I was really unashamed of talking about it because I was a kid and I was like, “This is the way it is.” Now that I’m in America, there’s so much shame around sex, sexual education is such a taboo, and it’s such a weird climate right now especially about trans kids in particular. They’re the enemy right now. In this political climate I’m happy I can stand for [the idea that] trans kids can transition and then be a grown up and happy and make [those] choices. I made the right choices that I’m proud of to this day.
But [at the same time] I have people saying I ruined my body and I ruined my life. They don’t know me at all. They don’t know my history, that I went to so many psychologists and so many doctors and that it was a real thing that had an assessment and [they gave me] an answer [about] why I got to [get hormone treatment]. It saved my life and then there’s people who are like, “This saved your life, but you ruined everything,”
I felt like my dad and I were guilty [of that with the apartment]. There’s people living in this modern apartment building now probably like, “We love it here,” and we’re like, “Nah, it’s basic and y’all ruined it.” I thought it was interesting to compare the two. What does it mean if something’s ruined but other people love it and it’s subjective. People are saying that you fucked it all up. That relates so much, too, to [how I’m] getting away from the pop formula.
