Ben Wallace is your typical 22-year-old. He loves playing music, and taking road trips with his dog, Bear.
(Bear seems to enjoy the road trips as well.)
Ben also happens to be the focus of the upcoming documentary Real Boy, which follows his transition as a transgender teenager.
In one particularly poignant scene, Ben admires his trans mentor Joe Stevens's beard. Mmmmm.... beardy.
Then Joe gives Ben a quick beard-trimming tip.
Ben shows Joe his single chin hair, which grew spontaneously during his first month of taking testosterone.
Joe's reaction is precious; Ben's is adorable.
"It's really exciting to see your body changing and it feels right," Ben told BuzzFeed News of that moment three years ago, after Joe invited Ben to spend a few months with him at Joe's home in Sacramento.
Ben's family was having trouble accepting his transition, and the two of them had met at a young person's sobriety convention a couple of months before. "Joe really made me feel supported and loved and taken care of and provided for," Ben said.
"I remember going through the same thing," Joe says about feeling self-conscious of his masculinity early in transition. "It was really cool to be able to help Ben."
"That's my one chin hair. It was a special day."
Joe and Ben continue to be great friends. They've collaborated on an album and are touring together next year. Joe has only gotten beardier!
And Ben continues to be adorable.
Real Boy is slated to premiere in early 2016, and director Shaleece Haas is raising funds on Kickstarter until October 30 to help with post-production costs.
Haas started documenting Ben in 2012 when he was nineteen, and their relationship has grown in their more than three years together. "Even though Bennett's transition is part of the film," Shaleece said, "I wasn't interested in telling Bennett's story just because he's trans. I was interested in his relationships—with Joe, with his mom, with his best friend Dylan—and how they evolved over time."
Watch the whole clip from Real Boy, including Joe giving Ben a haircut, right here:
