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 luminous colours and alien- like features, these magical mushrooms look like they belong on another planet .
BLOWING bubbles underwater, this adorable polar bear slides into his tank for a playful dip .
A cheeky gorilla sticks her tongue out and plays up for the camera at Bronx Zoo .
An Italian photographer travelled to northern India where he visited poverty stricken suburbs and captured ordinary people in a series of intimate and expressive portraits .
TOWERING 65 metres into the sky, this terrifying accent is a dream for climbers .
PERCHING on the edge of a flower, these loved-up caterpillars can't resist each other as they enjoy a romantic moment together .
A Brit photographer has captured one of the world's most camera-shy species of fish - during a game of underwater peek-a-boo .
THIS DANGER-mad female pensioner could be the oldest Brit to cage dive with CROCODILES .
A Little owl looks down the lens of a camera and gives the photographer a cheeky wink .
WELCOME to what could be the world's tallest TOTALLY wooden construction .
These photographs of extreme weather capture storms furiously rolling across the sky above America .
A diver attempts to control rising numbers of lionfish by feeding the venomous species to Caribbean reef sharks .