A brave 10-year-old has opened up about the distress she experienced while living as a boy, before she was able to ‘come out’ as transgender and transition from Ethan to Evie.
Talking to Chanel Nine’s Inside Story, Evie says that she was so unhappy living as a boy that she wrote to her parents telling them that she wanted to die.
“I just felt like I want to be who I am. I was just saying to myself, if I was in heaven I could be whoever I want – have my hair as long as I want, wear whatever I want,” she said.
“Before I was Evie I just felt alone, I felt sad. I don’t know who Ethan was. The only thing that would cheer me up was playing with girl’s stuff.
The Melbourne schoolgirl also explained that she felt trapped and tormented living as a boy.
“Everybody’s telling you who you’re supposed to be and tell you that you shouldn’t be acting like this, you should be acting like a boy. But I never was a boy,” she said.
Evie’s parents Scott and Meagan, said that Ethan wasn’t like other boys.
“Ethan was always female-oriented, he was never like the boys growing up. Ethan was very gentle, to me Ethan has always been Evie,’ said Scott.
Before they realised that their son was transgender, Scott and Megan thought that Ethan might be gay.
“I thought, I can be the parent of a gay kid. That was the easy bit!’ said Megan.
“That was the easy option. For us that was a road that seemed to have a lot less heartache but it didn’t turn out that way.”
As Ethan became increasingly miserable, his supportive parents realised that something drastic needed to change.
The turning point came when they caught Ethan trying on his sisters clothes under his doona. “I felt really sad that she had to go to those lengths to hide who she was,” said Meagan.
With support from the gender clinic at Melbourne’s Royal Child Hospital, the family began working towards helping Ethan transition.
Evie says that transitioning is the best thing she’s ever done and her parents say that it has made the family stronger than ever.
The determined school girl is now dreaming of her future, which she says will include a husband and two children. She hopes that people take strength from her story.
“I want to share my story because for people who watched this and see how I came out, it might be a bit easier for them to come out,’ she said.
“Look how I’ve turned out, look how nice I look, look what can happen when you come out. It could turn out great.”
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