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.
With the vivid red smoke billowing into the sky amid the misty sand dunes, these are the blissful views provided at the break of dawn at a volcano .
OFFERING a glimpse into the past, a mash-up of old and new photographs show how the world’s biggest cities have changed .
A brave praying mantis makes an unusual friend in an Oriental garden lizard .
SWIMMING next to 40 tonne whales, dare-devil divers take the plunge with these gentle giants of the sea .
CLINGING onto nothing but ice, this brave climber reaches heights of 1000 FEET as he scales frozen solid waterfalls .
A SPECTRUM of colours fills the sky during this spectacular and natural display of light .
A TAXIDERMY truck spotted in America’s Deep South could be the most gruesome wagon on the road .
LIFTING their heads high and bumping beaks, these aggressive pelicans clash over fish .
An Italian photographer travelled to the highlands of New Guinea where he met an Indonesian tribe untouched by the modern world .
HOPPING onto the scales, these adorable baby Humboldt penguins are ready for their first weigh-in .
A PENSIONER was left with a fractured jaw after being beaten and robbed outside his home in Birmingham last weekend .
These are the faces of orphans suffering from the horrifying effects of chemical warfare .