Luckily the first transgender person I ever met (when I was around 18) was an FtM who just looked and acted like a butch lesbian, so transitioning struck me as incredibly stupid and delusional. If I had met a passing FtM, that may have doomed me. And if I had met a passing, handsome transman like Laith Ashley, I don't see any way I wouldn't be on hormones now.

This is true for me too and I think it’s been formative in my understanding of trans-identifying people. The first 3 such people I met in life were obviously mentally ill or autistic. None of them passed. I could never think of any of them as their target sex. The very first was also an FtM who was a non-feminine lesbian but who in no way struck me as male. She was also the first lesbian I had met, which if I’m honest, probably also contributed to me being unable to recognize my own homosexuality. Because I definitely saw her as a lesbian. She had a girlfriend, was from a homophobic culture, and had a laundry list of mental health disorders, so this seemed par for the course.

Two of the three “came out” as trans a decade and a half ago. One “came out” 8 years ago. So the former were pre-social contagion and the other fell into some online anime/trans community and has made that his main hobby/entire life. He is also non-hormone/non-op.