‘Life is too short to have regrets’

Growing up, Amira felt it was difficult trying to live the life she wanted as society is very judgemental.

She said:“everyone around me knew that I was a girl. I remember my mum buying me a kitchen set for Christmas and just being so happy that it wasn’t something boyish.

“I remember dressing up in those little plastic heels and just feeling like myself and feeling normal.”

Amira then decided that she wanted to make the full transition as soon as she could and decided one day to go into her school, Calderside Academy in Blantyre, for the first time dressed fully as a woman. She said:“I remember that day, I decided to dress in full woman’s clothes with a wig and make-up. I did get some looks but the people who mattered knew that’s who I was anyway. It was time to just do something for me and to express who I really was. Some of the teachers were really supportive.”

Soon after, Amira took the next step in her journey to become the person she always knew she was.

She said:“i started taking hormones when I was a teenager which helped me to develop breasts naturally so there is no need for me to have surgery to get them. Even the Adam’s apple wasn’t a problem, I felt like a woman everywhere else, except from down there.”

And the final step was her operation which Amira said was the start of a new chapter for her.

She said:“i felt free and it was the best feeling in this whole world.”

Amira’s family are halfpakistani and she said that it was hard to take for them. She added: “But recently things have been good and I am really happy at the moment. Life is too short to have regrets and to think‘what if this, what if that?’do what makes you happy and live for the moment.

“If this experience sends out any message at all it is be who you want to be and be true to yourself.”

When we asked her about the future, Amira said:“my dream is to be on television in the future whether it be presenting or on reality TV. I won’t stop until I get to the top – you’ve got to believe in yourself and chase your dreams because they are not going to come and find you by chance.”