Girl, 11, Starts New School - As A Boy

Girl, 11, Starts New School - As A Boy
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An 11-year-old girl who broke up for the summer holidays will start at a new school this week - as a boy.

Canadian Wren Kauffman was born a girl but, thanks to the support of his family, he is ready to start life as the gender he believes he should have been born.

Teachers and fellow pupils are aware of the transformation in Wren and when he starts at his Edmonton school he will use the boys' locker rooms and toilets.

Although Wren, who was born Wrenna, knew from a young age that he was different, it took his parents a little longer to realise their daughter wanted more than to just be a tomboy.

"It's like you're trapped inside someone else's body that you don't want to be in," Wren told CTV News.

From a very early age Wren enjoyed dressing up as comic book heroes, wore his hair short and, at about the age of three, would ask when he would get to be a boy.

It was his little sister, Avy, who finally pressed home to their parents that Wren was transgendered.

"She said to me, 'You know, Mom, Wren is a boy and he told me to tell you'," said Wendy Kauffman.

When he was nine, Mrs Kauffman said Wren got really upset, and told her: "I know that I'm different, I feel different every day. I can't be a girl and be happy."

Mrs Kauffman told Wren: "I love you whether you're a boy or a girl and I understand now. And we'll figure out how we can help you. And we'll do it together."

His parents got in touch with Kris Wells, from the University of Alberta's Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services.

Wren is being given injections to delay puberty until he is 16, so he can decide whether to being male hormone treatment and, ultimately, gender realignment surgery when he is 18.

"If you're not yourself, then it kind of gets sad and depressing," Wren said. "I'm glad that I told everybody."