How do I stop feeling like a fraud when I step into a new role or identity?

Sor Juana felt this acutely—as a woman in male intellectual spaces, as a nun who didn't fit the mold, as someone whose brilliance made others uncomfortable. She called it out directly in her writing: the constant requirement to prove legitimacy, the assumption that she didn't belong. Here's what she understood that helped her: the fraud feeling isn't about your actual competence. It's about the gap between how you see yourself and how the system sees people like you. You're not fraudulent. The role or identity is unfamiliar, or the space wasn't built expecting someone like you in it. The trick is separating two things: (1) Am I actually unqualified? Usually no. (2) Am I uncertain because this role is new to me, or because I've internalized that people like me don't belong here? Those need different responses. Sor Juana's method: she documented her knowledge obsessively, not to prove herself to others, but to anchor her own certainty. She also found witnesses—people who genuinely saw her capability. Not cheerleaders; people who could say, "Yes, you actually know this." When you feel fraudulent, ask: What would I need to know or do to feel legitimate? Then be honest about whether that's reasonable or whether you're chasing an impossible standard. Sometimes the answer is actually leaving. Sometimes it's finding your people in the room.