POSING arm in arm, teenager Hannah Whetton and her mum Carol look like any loving mother and daughter. They enjoy going clothes shopping together and share make-up tips.<\/p>\n
But for the first 16 years of her life Hannah was Arron, Carol’s son.<\/p>\n
Carol, 45, says: “Our relationship has totally changed since Hannah told me she wanted a sex change.<\/p>\n
“We’ve gone from verbally violating each other as we pass in the house to having a really close relationship where we go to town together and she advises me on what to wear and how to do my make-up.<\/p>\n
“She is a lot calmer and more positive now. And she smiles more.<\/p>\n
“I won’t pretend it’s been easy for any of us but I know Hannah will never be truly happy until she is a woman – and I just want what’s best for her.”<\/p>\n
In her fashionable outfit, with her hair extensions neatly curled, it is clear Hannah, 17, feels most comfortable dressing as a girl.<\/p>\n
She says: “I’ve known since I was about five really. I remember being in the bath with my older sister Stacey, who is now 23.<\/p>\n
“I realised that we had different bits but I felt like a girl as well.<\/p>\n
“When I was little I used to play with Stacey’s Barbie dolls. I never liked football or any of the things boys are meant to love.<\/p>\n
“As I got older I became more and more convinced that I didn’t want to be a boy.”<\/p>\n
Afraid of people’s reactions and unsure where to turn, Hannah kept her feelings secret for years.<\/p>\n
She says: “Other kids used to say I was gay. But I knew I wasn’t. I always felt like a straight girl who was in a boy’s body.<\/p>\n
“I used to tell people I was ‘asexual’ because that was easier than explaining what I really was.<\/p>\n
“It was the little things that made school torture, like having to get changed for PE in the boys’ changing rooms. It just felt so wrong. I’d always pretend I’d forgotten my gym kit or skive off school to get out of it.”<\/p>\n
Hannah, who is studying animal care at college but hopes to pursue a career in hair and make-up, says: “When I was about 15 I started wearing sporty tracksuits and spiking my hair up to see if I could act and dress like a boy and still be happy. But it just wasn’t me.”<\/p>\n
One day Stacey put seven-year-old Arron in a bridesmaid’s dress.<\/p>\n
Carol says: “She came over and said, ‘Look at me mum’. I had never seen her so happy. Growing up, Arron had tantrums when we went shopping, which I now realise was because we were shopping for boys’ clothes. I realise now I was blind to the real issue.”<\/p>\n
Despite the clues, nothing could have prepared the mum for the day in December 2009 when Hannah finally admitted she was unhappy with being a boy.<\/p>\n
Carol, from Chellaston, Derbyshire, who also has a ten-year-old son, Dale, says: “She looked worried. I asked what the matter was and she said, ‘I think I want a sex change.’<\/p>\n
“I was shocked. I cried a lot in those first few days. I was scared of what the future held.<\/p>\n
“I had to go through a kind of grieving process – but gradually I came to accept it.”<\/p>\n
Hannah, who is 5ft 11in, adds: “She said I was far too young and I would change my mind. I felt really guilty for upsetting her.”<\/p>\n
The medical term for Hannah’s condition is gender dysphoria.<\/p>\n
In the December after her confession, weeks after she turned 16, Hannah visited her GP with the full support of her mum and said she wanted a sex change.She started dressing as a woman in February last year and began taking female hormones last month, the first step to fully becoming a woman. The results can be seen in the picture of her above. She hopes for a full sex change operation on the NHS within the next few years.<\/p>\n
Hannah says: “It’s great. I feel more feminine now. My hips have widened and my cheekbones have filled out. Soon I’ll develop breast tissue. You have to live as a woman for a couple of years before they let you have the operation.<\/p>\n
“I attend a transgender support group – the LGBT Centre in Leicester – every month.”In November last year Hannah changed her name by deed poll.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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