The Tale of a Transgender Preteen

The mother of a socially transitioning 10-year-old transgender girl in Worcester, England, says other kids are more accepting of her child than adults.

According to the Worcester News, which has agreed to protect the identity of the child and her 36-year-old mother, the girl has been diagnosed by London experts with gender dysphoria.

"She is within her mind a girl but she has a boy's body," her mother told the paper. "She is the same as everybody else apart from the fact she doesn't feel right in her own body."

Her mother, who labeled her daughter a "girlie girl" who is into fashion and dolls instead of cars, said the problems began when the child started primary school at the age of seven and a half. "Then she would have to lie about what she got for Christmas and say a football or an Action Man when in fact she got a pair of sparkly shoes and a Barbie. Everything she was having to do was a lie."

The woman said her daughter would dress as a girl during holidays but once came home from the grocery store in tears after being called a "freak" by an adult.

Even though there have been some incidents of bullying from children, many of her peers have accepted her. Most of the abuse, the mother said, has come from grown-ups.

Even though they have not yet decided how they will approach her medical condition in the future, over the summer break, her family made the decision to allow her return to school as a girl.

"It's not a phase. It's not a choice," said her mother, who doesn't expect people to understand but hopes people won't abuse her. "I don't want her to be called a freak. I want her to be left alone."

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