I LOST HALF MY WEIGHT AND BECAME A WOMAN

Pinning a purple flower into her bleach blonde hair, pretty Ava admired herself in the mirror. She had every reason to be proud. In the space of a year, she had lost an incredible 17 stone. Her weight dropped from 37st 1lbs to 19st 7lbs, and she slipped into a dress before gazing at her newly svelte figure. With her smokey eye makeup and black skater dress, she could have been glamming up for a night on the tiles with her girlfriends. Instead, it was Halloween, 2013, and Ava was hiding a huge secret. Born a boy named William, it was the first time she had ever dressed as a girl – and everything fell into place.

Other great stories
RARE BRONTE POEM FETCHES £92K AT AUCTION

A rare manuscript of one of Charlotte Bronte’s earliest poems went under the hammer today and fetched nearly £100,000 – double what it was expected to get .

GOLDEN EAGLE FESTIVAL

RACING through the mountain range on horseback, the Kazakh people practice their ancient tradition of hunting with golden eagles .

ABANDONED WILD WEST THEME PARK

The gunslingers are long gone and tumbleweeds have taken over at this abandoned American Wild West Theme Park in Cornwall .

ADORABLE SHELTER DOGS STRIKE A ‘PAWS’ TO FIND FOREVER HOMES

A group of shelter dogs showcase their loveable personalities in a series of passport-style photographs - in the hope of finding their forever homes .

FIGHTING BLACKBACK GORILLAS

FISTS fly as two gorillas take each other on in a dramatic battle .

INCREDIBLE PHOTOREALISTIC DRAWINGS CREATED WITH A BALLPOINT PEN

FROM a HOLLYWOOD actress to the face of an innocent child, these are incredible drawings with an unlikely twist .

ADORABLE SQUIRRELS PREPARE FOR EASTER BREAK

Scurrying along the branch of a tree, a little squirrel pushes a pram packed full of Easter treats .

FIGHT CUB

JUMPING and bouncing off one another, these young cheetahs enjoy some harmless fun .

AMAZING AURORA BOREALIS

A GLOWING range of greens and blues sweep across the sky in a spectacular display of light .

PLAYFUL OWL PLAYS HIDE AND SEEK

A cheeky owl fancies a game of hide and seek as it peeps out from behind a tree .

CHEEKY FROG HITCHES A RIDE ON A SNAIL

A lazy tree frog, tired of hopping along a branch, chooses the slowest form of transport when it jumps on top of an unsuspecting snail .

BOOM SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE THE ROOM

WELCOME to the 125 decibel boombox bus that could damage your hearing if you party too close to its giant speakers .