A GLAMOROUS grandmother who helps transvestites feel beautiful has said it is not easy feeling accepted.

Bea Marshall, a make-up artist and photographer from Colchester, was watching Loose Women on television while guest Rain Dove was being interviewed.

Rain Dove is a model and a self-proclaimed gender capitalist, meaning she does not conform to either men’s or women’s body standards.

However Bea said her reaction to gender capitalism was one of "annoyance and disappointment".

About four years ago she met a transvestite at a party, who told her about ‘dressing services’. The service is specifically for the transgender community.

She said: "Gender capitalism is not helpful for the thousands of trans women out there who are struggling to have their identity taken seriously.

"The idea people can swap and change their gender at will over the course of an evening could be patronising and dangerous to the trans community.

"This type of interview topic can be misleading to the uninformed general public who are still trying to understand gender disparity.

"I work with women who are trapped in the body of a man, think about that for a moment. Every time they look in the mirror there is a large, manly, possibly hairy stranger with a deep voice staring back at them.

"For my clients and the other trans women this is a daily horror."

She believes Rain Dove runs the risk of "trivialising" what can be a difficult experience.

However, she did say concepts such as being transgender can take time to be seen as 'normal'.

She said: "Trans to many is still a new and strange phenomenon, even though this has been a reality for such women since the beginning of time.

"With the onset of the internet and our ability to research anything in seconds, trans women are slowly becoming understood.

"Increasingly they appear in the media as validated human beings and not the freak shows of yesteryear. We need things like this to happen to help transgender become normal.

"I help trans women on a daily basis to come to terms with who they are and how to face the world. I help them with their pain and I help them with their transitioning.

"I also help them to find the smile that has lain hidden for many, many years."