Changing Sex: Transsexual Teens

Sarah Green is 17 and she was born with the body of a boy. But since the age of six Sarah has felt that she is supposed to be a girl. She dresses like a woman and wants people to see her as female.

‘The first time I went out as a woman I felt really embarrassed but it was brilliant too. I wasn’t hiding anymore,’ says Sarah.

The official name for Sarah’s condition is transsexual. It means that someone is born physically male or female but mentally they feel like the opposite gender. (This is different from being a transvestite, which means you just want to dress as the opposite gender.) It can be very upsetting and confusing if you feel the body you were born with is the wrong one. People can start to feel they have a problem with living in the wrong body from early childhood.

From Channel Four Microsites – July 2000
By Lorna Russell, mermaids.freeuk.com:80/chan4.html