“I was a very quiet child. I didn’t have a huge amount of friends, just because I was a bit different. When I was around five or six I knew my body was different from how I saw myself. At the age of seven, when I was able to start dressing myself, I dressed purely in boy’s clothes, because that was what I was happy in. I didn’t see it as an issue, and neither did my parents, although they protested for a little while.

It became difficult at around 14 or 15, when social pressures to be a certain way came into place and I became more aware of having to fit a certain role in society. I went along with those pressures until I was about 16, but then I thought, this is just who I am, and I just dressed the way I wanted to, and did what I wanted. I began to find out what being trans was, and decided over a course of time that I was transgender.

I originally came out to my Dad, more because I thought he wouldn’t make a big deal of it. Eventually I got my Dad to tell my Mum about two or three months afterwards. He told my brother too then, and a few months after that they began to tell relatives. The reaction was good overall. My parents were very accepting. My Dad took a week to think about things. It can be a bit of a shock, and he needed to get his head around it, but it was a shock they were maybe expecting.

I started transitioning in about fourth year of the mixed school I go to. If I’d started transitioning earlier, I think it would have been difficult, but by that time the people around me had matured more. Nobody made a huge deal about it. If I did get questions it would be either through some of my friends, or it would be respectful.

We talked to the school itself at the beginning of the year about changing my name on the register, and I did get that done after I’d changed my name by deed poll. I wore tracksuits for the first month instead of the girl’s uniform, because the school wanted to get the all clear from the board of management. Eventually I got the boy’s uniform and when I did, nobody made a huge deal of it.

I have had one of the easiest paths of the people I know, and I’m very thankful for that. Most of the trouble for me was before I transitioned, the impact it was having on my mental health – not being able to outright say it at the time, having to have a plan in case it didn’t go well once I came out. I haven’t had any troubles with going on hormones or changing my name. Transitioning has been a huge help to me.

I originally went to BelonG To’s Sunday meetings a lot, and some friends said I should come to the IndividualiTy meetings. I did and I really enjoyed it. The group was really relaxed and nice, and not so intense because it was a smaller group of people to talk to and get to know.

I’m doing my Leaving Cert next June. I’d love to go into either becoming a mechanical engineer, or a forester or a carpenter. I’m in a good place.”

Find out more about the IndividualiTy youth group here.