Thurrock News
Zach, 5, is a girl in a boy's body
3:30pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012
A CHILD has become one of the youngest in the country to be diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder.
Zach Avery, from Purfleet, believed he was a girl trapped in a boy’s body two years ago.
The five-year-old, who wears pink dresses with ribbons in his long blonde hair, was officially diagnosed with the disorder at the age of four.
Parents Theresa and Darren Avery became concerned about Zach, who loved Thomas the Tank Engine, when he started behaving like a girl at the end of 2010.
Mother-of-four Theresa, 32, said: “He just turned round to me one day when he was three and said ‘mummy, I’m a girl’.
“I assumed he was going through a phase and just left it.
“But then it got serious and he would become upset if anyone referred to him as a boy.
“He used to cry and try to mutilate himself out of frustration.”
Initially his parents thought he could be autistic, but after seeing specialists at Tavistock and Portman Foundation Trust in London, a child psychologist diagnosed him.
Theresa said: “They told us although he had a male body, his brain was telling him he was a girl.”
Purfleet Primary School, where Zach is a pupil, has altered the children’s toilets to be gender neutral in a show of support.
A spokesman for the school said: “The school is an integral part of the local community and has always worked to support the community as well as the school ‘family’.
“Promoting equality is a legal requirement and underpins all we do. We treat all our pupils as individuals and we work hard, often with a number of agencies to meet pupils’ individual needs.”
Theresa continued: “The kids at school haven't batted an eyelid, they’ve accepted Zach as Zach and there have been no problems with bullying.
“The school has been brilliant and really supportive.”
She added: “We still put some neutral clothes in his wardrobe if he ever decides he wants to wear them.
“I would love to have my son back, but I want to him to be happy. If this is the route he wants to take then so be it.”