“I am not who you think I am.”
Profile Feature by Emma Blight
If you have been as glued to ‘Hollyoaks’ as we have been recently there will have been one story line you will have not missed. Newcomer Jasmine Costello, aged 16 has recently rocked the ‘Oaks by revealing she wants to be a boy.
The storyline followed Jasmines struggle to be accepted as her male alter-ego, Jason, by her close family, boyfriend and even herself. Now living as a male, Jason gives his family no choice but to accept the change and help make his transition from male to female as smooth as possible.
But this is not a story so far-fetched from real-live. There are an estimated 5,000 recognised transgenders in the UK alone, but this may not be the true number. Due to the high discrimination rates, it is common for people to keep their gender identity a secret.
Ryan Gingell, 21, is not one of those keeping quiet. He had a happy childhood, but couldn’t help but feeling different. It wasn’t until he turned 19 that he realised it was time to do something about it, which would change the way he lived his life forever.
In fact, Ryan was not born as Ryan at all. He was born as a female, but after discovering his desire to make the transition from female to male, he now lives his live as a transboy in Brighton.
Transwho?
Transgender’s are perhaps the most misunderstood cultures in the world. To someone who hasn’t experienced or had contact with someone who is living as a different gender the question would be “How on earth can you decide you want to be a different sex?”
“Being transgender means that your sex does not align with your gender. So you can be assigned female at birth but how you feel about yourself whether it be masculine, feminine or neither, does not match. Some say it's like being born in the wrong body. Like having a male brain but female body or vice versa,” explains Ryan. “Transgender also encompasses identities such as genderqueer, bi-gender, genderless etc, which means that some people just don't identify as either male or female so remain, some could say, as androgynous.”