When the dress fits: Schoolgirl leaves gender definitions behind

Mia pulled on her school dress on Monday morning just like any other girl at Carrum Downs Secondary College. Wearing it felt normal, the 17-year-old says, but admits she experienced a flutter of nerves as she walked through the gates of her school.

When the dress fits: Schoolgirl leaves gender definitions behind Kjmiawide_20140606200027749036-620x349

When the dress fits: Schoolgirl leaves gender definitions behind Kjmiawide_20140606200027749036-620x349

Mia was raised a boy, but her internal sense of gender is female, and wearing a dress to school this week represented another step in her plan, supported by her mother, Donna, to express herself as a young woman.

Support and advocacy organisation Ygender says conservative estimates suggest 1.5 per cent of the population are transgender, transsexual or gender diverse, but up to 8 per cent of Australians may fall into these categories.

The terms vary in meaning but all refer to people whose sense of gender identity differs from expectations generated by their body at birth. Many, like Mia, experience a strong sense of relief when they begin living in a way that is right for them.

"I think it would be worse for me not to [wear a school dress]; I wouldn't be happy at all," she said.

Donna said when Mia attended school wearing a dress on a casual clothes day, some of the kids were "awful". But Carrum Downs Secondary College assistant principal Lisa Holt said when teachers were later told Mia was transgender, they all wanted to know how they could help.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/when-the-dress-fits-carrum-schoolgirl-leaves-gender-definitions-behind-20140606-39osp.html

When the dress fits: Schoolgirl leaves gender definitions behind

When the dress fits: Schoolgirl leaves gender definitions behind

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