Rex
A little boy has returned to school after the summer holidays in a dress after 'coming out' as a girl.
The 10-year-old was apparently miserable and fed up at 'living a lie' and made the decision over the summer to start the new term as a female.
As the student re-joined her classmates sporting 'her' school's regulation girls' uniform, her headteacher held a special assembly to explain the situation.
Although the child has been diagnosed with gender dysmorphia, not all parents have been sympathetic to her plight, with one parent telling the Mirror the child will now be singled out for bullying.
The child's mum, a 36-year-old from Worcester, spoke up for her, saying: 'She is within her mind a girl but she has a boy's body.'
She said although born a boy, the child had wanted to be a little girl since she was a toddler of two, and that school life had been very challenging for her because she had to lie about things like what she got for Christmas, claiming she had got an Action Man or football, when in fact, the mother said, it had been 'sparkly shoes and a Barbie.'
The mother added that the family had been ridiculed and abused and called freaks - but she insisted that her youngster was not just going through a 'phase':
'It's not a phase. It's not a choice – what child would choose to be completely miserable? I don't expect people to understand, but I want her to be left alone.
'Some people need glasses. Some need a wheelchair, my daughter needs to dress like a girl because she is a girl.'
The child's headteacher said they had a policy to 'support' all their students:
'We operate an inclusive policy and work to ensure all our pupils have the support they need.'
The family are reportedly deciding how to approach the issue of medical intervention in the coming years.
What do you think about this?
Was the mum right to send her son to school as a girl, or is the child too young to make such big decisions?