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When Jessica Copeland was six she was asked to pick between two Halloween costumes - superman or a ballerina.

The obvious choice was to go straight for the ballerina outfit, but the decision wasn't that easy.

This is because Jessica was born male, and this is one of her earliest memories of knowing she was not in the right body.

Now at the age of 23, Jessica is finally living the life she always knew she should after bravely making the decision to transition at the age of 18.

Speaking to Belfast Live , the night club worker has opened up about her transition and growing up struggling with the issues that surrounded becoming who she was always meant to be.

"I officially transitioned when I was 18, Christmas Day 2011 but all my life I have felt I was female and I would always pray to God at night that I would wake up the different sex," said Jessica.

"That obviously didn't happen but it never stopped me dressing in female clothing."

"I was always open with my parents, there were never any secrets between us, I would wear female night garments and stuff from a very young age so it was not difficult to know what I was."

Jessica's parents Helen and Damien have been with their daughter every step of the way through her journey and she said she was lucky enough to have the support of her family, including her twin brother and two sisters.

But, although she had the support of her family for a long time, Jessica did not make the decision to transition until she was 18 and struggled with sharing her true self with the wider community.

Jessica said it was for her own family that she started to suppress who she was during her early teenage years before deciding enough was enough.

"Back when I was P3 I think that's probably the earliest I can remember identifying as female," she said.

"It was Halloween at school and my mum asked what do you want to be, do you want to be superman and I said no. She had a ballerina outfit and she said you are going to get teased if you wear the ballerina.

"There was no question about it, I was going to be a ballerina. So I wore the ballerina costume and people did look at me and say things but I didn't care. I just continued from there on in.

"Even as a child I wore my sister's communion dress and a head scarf for hair as my own hair was quite short at the time. I was always dressing up, always.

"As everyone does throughout their life, I did have to put up with people making comments, but I think if there was any negativity it was more people talking and teasing, I didn't pay attention to it so it's hard to look back.

"There was a guy we went to school with, me and my brother are twins, and this guy spread it around school. My brother and I sorted it out in our own way but that struck home then and I was like this can not be spread around the school, I can't be tortured, this is something I need to pull back.

"I said to myself I need to suppress this, this is not what boys do. From then and years after until, from 15 to 17/18, I suppressed it, put it away because I was more afraid of people saying things about my family and them getting it because I didn't care.

"At the time I came out as gay and that was hard enough for my brother to deal with, without this other baggage as well.

"Then when I was 17/18, I went to a fancy dress fundraiser and dressed as female. The fundraiser was to help raise money so me and others could go to Romania for the second year over the summer to help the less fortunate.

"No one recognised me and the reaction was amazing, I think from that point - because it was already in my mind and I had talked to family about it - I thought I am not going to suppress this anymore, this is me.

"From then my mindset was, OK when am I doing this, when is it happening?"

It was when Jessica was sat watching a programme on BBC Three about trans youth with her family that her mum turned to her and asked if it was something she would identify as.

The family started to talk about it a bit more and on Christmas Day 2011, she made the decision to start living as Jessica.

Speaking about that time when she decided to begin her transition, Jessica said: "I think my brother took it the hardest but he has come through to be one of my biggest supporters, I think it was because we were twins and the pressure on him and I got it and I would never hold it against him.

"My name previously began with a J too to I got people to call me Jay and then people started to call me Jessica.

"It has been the best thing I have ever done because I could not think of going back and having not done this and lived in another gender, I could not have done that. I could not have put myself through it.

"I think for a lot of young people, because others transition later in life they hold a lot of this in and I just think why do that to yourself. Yes there could be backlash but be true to yourself and if needs be move away.

"Be true to yourself and you will be a lot happier. It will be scary, it will be terrifying and you will definitely lose people in your life but at the end of the day they weren't really true friends if they didn't stick by you.

"You have to be selfish, you have to think about yourself and put yourself first most times.

"People in your life might need time to adjust to it and that's fine but this is your life and it's difficult on you too, do what you need to do. That's the foremost thing, do what you need to do."

But making that decision on Christmas Day 2011 was just the first step in a long and difficult four year journey to complete her transition.

The next step was a trip to her GP who then referred Jessica to the Gender Identity Clinic at Knockbracken Healthcare Park.

From that point, Jessica underwent treatment including taking testosterone blockers, hormones, as well as laser hair removal and vocal training before her surgery on June 30, 2015.

Speaking to other young people who may be struggling with the thoughts of transitioning, Jessica said: "My transition was very smooth in regards to how the process went, it was a bit dragged out though.

"It entails you coming to terms with it yourself and really believing it because it takes a lot of willpower to actually put yourself out there like that, so make sure you are good on the inside and you are strong enough to start that journey.

"Mostly have someone, family or friends, you might not need them but it's good to have them for support.

"Just be confident in yourself, you will not get it right straight away, you will make some mistakes, you will make some horrendous fashion mistakes like everyone else does but just try to be true to yourself and no one can say anything because if you know who you are and are true to yourself then there's nothing stopping you, no one can touch you.

"In regards to the fashion mistakes listen to your peers. You will definitely think you know better well at least I did, but try to let at least let someone you trust in so they can help you.

"Have a thick skin and if you don't have one, get one because you will have to especially in Belfast, it's not very progressive in certain ways. People will look, people will stare but you have to block out everything and it takes time - have a thick skin and if you don't have one you will need to start developing one because you will have to especially in Belfast.

"You are very self conscious at the start but when you build up that tolerance nothing can faze you, you know what you are inside and that's it."

Talking about her journey, Jessica added: "It takes a good few months to get an appointment and then you have to go through psychoanalysis which takes a few months and if they think everything is OK they move you on to get your blood works done and making sure you are healthy to go on hormones and blockers.

"You go on testosterone blockers once every month for three months before you can go on estrogen but you will continue getting the blockers once every three months until your GRS (Gender Reassignment Surgery).

"You are on hormones for life but the testosterone blockers stop when you have your surgery. You are on hormones for about five months then you go to the Ulster Hospital to get laser hair removal on your face, and it hurts.

"They allocate you 10 sessions and if you need more after that you pay for it yourself but it should be done in 10 sessions.

"You probably need a day to recover from every session so book that day off work or school as your face does swell and you can not put make-up on.

"After that you go for vocal training, it's not a necessity but it's an option that's there. I went for five sessions and they told me there was basically nothing they could do for me because I already sounded female so there was nothing more they could do other than diction and tone.

"Then you go in for your surgery, they give you the go ahead and give you a date but it could be months. I got a cancellation and I had my surgery on June 30 last year.

"For me there was no question of it, it was something that needed to be done and I have not looked back since, it has been phenomenal.

"It has changed my life but on the other hand it's not life altering. Some people think that when you have the surgery you are going to become a different person, you are exactly the same person, just the person you wanted to be in the first place.

"I did think everything was going to change and I am a different person now to a certain degree but looking back you can still tell it's me. I was expecting to be a completely different person, that's not the way it goes.

"That is something people need to come to terms with if they are going to go through it because you are not going to be a hell of a lot skinner or look like a super model, you just look like you."

Jessica, who has been in a relationship with girlfriend Séaneen Kane for a year, said she hopes that by speaking out about her transition she can help other young people going through the same turmoil she was.

"It's not weird or abnormal, it's just something people go through, you should not be ashamed at all," she said.

"Do not try to hide away from it."

Growing up, Jessica said there were few trans men or women she could look to as inspiration until Carmen Carrera appeared on American TV show RuPaul's Drag Race.

"At the time there was no one that I knew intimately but there was a girl called Carmen Carrera on RuPaul's Drag Race, a show in America a bit like America's Next Top Model but for drag queens," she said.

"When she left the show she transitioned and I followed her from then and now she's this amazing transgender activist and model. She was the person I looked up to because she was the only transgender person I knew and that was enough for me.

"Then the years past and now there's the likes of Laverne Cox and she's amazing and inspiring to lots of female trans people, she is such a voice for us. She was kind of the start of the voice, she made it mainstream, she did us a massive favour by doing that.

"That has given me hope that transgender women and men will become mainstream and just part of society instead of this side thing a lot of people do not know about. She is spreading the word."

Jessica said Northern Ireland has a long way to go when it comes to becoming an accepting society, but she hopes that one day trans men and women will be part of mainstream society and not people living on the edges.

Although her transition was mostly positive, she said there were times when it was soul destroying and she even dropped out of university in Derry.

She said: "People can be quite ignorant about it and there's a lot of ignorance in Belfast towards the trans community. They just do not know or understand what trans means.

"A lot of people at the start of my transition were quite rude and you would get people just thinking that you dressed in woman's clothes and not put two and two together and realise that is what I identify as.

"You would hear he a lot and it was soul destroying at the time and it took a while for me to grow that thick skin of not caring, at the time it was tough, very tough.

"Even though my family came through this with me they are still learning, everyone can learn more.

"It just does need to become normal because people who do know enough about it, you are educating them all the time.

"You do have days when you do not want to go out into the world and have all these questions. You do not want to have to explain yourself, it would be nice not to have to because it's mainstream and people know everything they need to know."

Jessica said she has changed a lot during her transition, in particular her style. Initially she said she would have wore a lot of skirts and dresses instead of jeans and trousers because they were more feminine.

"It's quite nice to see the progression, even in photographs, how your look has matured and the dramatic change in the way I look, dress, everything," she said.

"Everything will change, you may think one thing going into it but that changes, what you want to put out to the world."

Now Jessica is looking forward and is excited about what the future holds as her transition put parts of her life on hold.

But she has no regrets and encouraged anyone reading about her journey to be true to themselves and not to live a lie.

"I could not go through life with this inside me and suppress it, I would find it extremely difficult and it would be very self destructive, you do not know where that would lead you," she said.

"I wish I would have come out younger because I would not have had to go through two puberties. You have to be prepared for that, you will go through the mood swings all over again, you will get very hormonal, you will cry a lot for no reason, your skin changes, just everything.

"Just be aware you will get those changes no matter what so be aware of that going into it that it's not easy by any stretch of the imagination and you will have your off days and you will not want to do anything.

"It has been an absolute rollercoaster."