The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender+ community has gained a lot of exposure in the media as of late, more specifically the Transgender community. Reality television programs based on the lives of Trans people have gained popularity  in 2015-just this summer two shows about transgender women have premiered on TLC and E!.

According to Livescience.com, the most frequently presented percentage of transgender individuals in the United states is .2 to .3.

“Why would anyone want to be transgender? As my granddad would say, ‘there’s no future in it.’ This statement has been supported in the past by media portrayals of transgender people as sexual deviants, tragic jokes, or lives that ends in violence and definitely not success. With these kinds of images being all that one sees, it is easy to understand why many trans people seek to transition, pass, and ‘go stealth’ as quickly as possible,” said Jayne Henson of the Huffington Post, who is transgender herself.

I Am Cait, a television show based on Caitlyn Jenner premiered on E! Network on July 26, focusing on her revealing herself to her family as Caitlyn and her ongoing transition.

“We don’t want people dying over this. We don’t want people murdered over this. What a responsibility I have toward this community,” Jenner says in the premiere episode of her show, “I just hope I get it right.”

In the first episode, Jenner teaches her mother and two sisters about her trans experience alongside a gender counselor— who helps answer any questions and helps them come to understand what Jenner has gone through as a woman who is transgender.

“So many people go through life and they never deal with their own issues — no matter what the issues are — ours happen to be gender identity… But, how many people go through life and just waste an entire life ’cause they’d never deal with themselves to be who they are,” Jenner said in her show.

Another show that premiered on TLC on July 15, entitled I am Jazz, is an 11-episode docuseries, starring a young girl named Jazz Jennings, who is transgender. She’s been out as a girl since kindergarten, and has lived accordingly ever since. I am Jazz goes through her life as a middle school girl— from family to friends, and dating— from the perspective of someone who is transgender.

“People think this was a choice, that one day I woke up and was like, ‘I’m a girl,’ but no – it’s just the way I was born. I’ve always been a girl,” Jennings said to PEOPLE Now.com before her television show debut.

Jennings prior to the show has had a popular YouTube channel where she addresses problems for the transgender community, trying to show cisgender (otherwise known as people who aren’t trans)  people that transgender individuals are the same as they are.

“Everyone always thinks it’s about the surgery, what’s between your legs, but … this is about what’s between your ears – and being transgender is the process of learning to love yourself and accept your difference. People have to understand that it’s not just a medical journey,” said Jennings to PEOPLE Now.com.

With all the exposure from television programs and blogs about transgender individuals, the Transgender community is getting a lot of attention from the media. The public eye is getting used to seeing transgender people in daily life— not just on the news.

“I would love to see Caitlyn Jenner use her position to directly affect the community and not go through the gatekeepers that are speaking on behalf of the community,” Angelica Ross said in a video on USA Today, who is the CEO of TransTechSocial Enterprises— a company that trains LGBT+ individuals in technological and media jobs, and helps them find careers.

Ross wants to make sure that people know that experiences held by Jenner and Jennings is not the typical transgender experience for a lot of Americans today.

“Having the access that Caitlyn has is such a drastic contrast to what the normal experience of being trans in America is… It’s starting to expose the hypocrisy of our country to want to celebrate and at the same time ridicule and violate a [trans] community. We’re either on red carpets, stages, TV, or we’re literally in the gutter, and homeless and jobless,” said Ross to USA Today.

She also said that she personally hopes Jenner will become a type of spokesperson for trans movements and organizations, and be a help to the trans community now that Jenner is more prevalent in the media.

“I think if we are able to actually reach across this country in places where people aren’t being heard and seen, we’d see that we are much bigger of a community than people think… we are right alongside you and you don’t even know it,” said Ross to USA Today.