A 12-year-old boy who was born as a girl has changed his name by deed poll after realising that he had been assigned the wrong gender at birth.
Gabriel Buttress was actually given the name Charlotte by his parents when he was born but realised as he grew up that his birth gender was not the one that he was supposed to live for the rest of his life as.
Gabriel, who lives in Hessle in East Yorkshire, then cut all of his hair off and has now changed his name by law.
His mum, Melanie Palmer-Scaum, said: "About two years ago we were in this shop looking for girls' clothes and he said, "I don't want to shop here mum."
He has four brothers so I thought it might be to do with that but then he said he wanted his hair cut short.
"As soon as the clipper touched his head he had the biggest grin on his face and that was when I had a little bit of an inkling."
Melanie, a 35-year-old mum of six says that Gabriel has always been a tomboy, but didn't realise that he felt as if he was trapped in the wrong body.
Back in February though, Gabriel found the courage to talk to his mum about it
Melanie continued: "Gabriel texted me from his dad's house. He said, "do you know what LGBT is?"
"And I didn't know what it was. He said, "well I'm one of them", and I asked him if he meant he was trans and he said he was.
"Even though I had an inkling I was still a little shocked and it took me a couple of days to get my head around it.
"It was a shock and it took time for it to sink in and for me to get used to calling Gabriel a him."
His mum accepted him and he enjoys a happy home life as a boy, but at school amongst other children it can be more difficult.
After a series of problems at school his mum has taken the decision to home school him as he can be happier at home where he can be who he really is without question.
"He had a few people ask him "are you a boy or a girl?" but he just didn't have the confidence to come out at school and his anxiety got really bad." His mum said.
"I said to him that he didn't have to go back to school and that he can be a boy 24/7 at home. I said that I would home school him and he was so happy."
Now that his name change is official the next steps for Gabriel is to get onto a hormone blocking procedure. This will delay his puberty and allow him to transition properly.
His mum knows she could get some criticism for allowing him to take such a decision at his age, but she also thinks that it is important for parents to listen to their children and try to understand their concerns if they are having thoughts about their gender.
Featured Image Credit: Melanie Palmer-Scaum/MEN MediaTopics: girl, UK News, Yorkshire, Trans, LGBT