A TRANSGENDER model who was born a boy says she doesn’t tell men she dates about her past because it “isn’t relevant”.

Tanya Griffiths, 26, who started dressing as a girl at the age of 11, says she always knew she was in the wrong body.

8 Tanya, who started dressing as a girl at the age of 11, says she always knew she in the wrong body Credit: North News and Pictures

8 Tanya says her past as male is something she doesn’t feel she must tell the men she dates Credit: North News and Pictures

She had surgery at 21 and says she doesn’t believe she should necessarily tell lovers that she was once male.

She said: "Some people think I should be straight and tell boyfriends the truth about my past but I just don't think that I need to.

"It isn't relevant, I am a girl and in my mind I always was. The only difference is that I can't have babies.

"It's the best thing I ever did."

Tanya, of Stockton-on-Tees, Co. Durham, who was born Thomas, says she has experienced little prejudice since her operation.

But that does not prevent her encouraging others who feel trapped in the wrong body to put their old lives behind them.

RELATED STORIES 'Let people live their lives' Goldust has issued a statement after his transgender step-child was attacked by three individuals 'HUMANE AND SAFE' Government to make efforts to ensure transgender criminals go to correct gender prison 'LET HIM BE KILLED' Newlywed transgender Muslim woman brutally killed after being disowned by family COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE Fury as BBC broadcasts transgender show for children featuring puberty-stunting medication 'let children be children' Parents and MPs fume at BBC show about 11-year-old transgender child for six-year-olds

She said: "For me, being born the wrong sex hasn't been a major issue, but I know for most people going through what I went through, it can seem like hell.

"I have always been confident enough to embrace who I really am and I have been able to live as a girl from a young age.

"I have ambitions to become a model, and photographers who've taken my picture don't notice there is anything different about me.

"No one has ever commented that I look masculine, I don't have an Adam's apple and my hands are really small.

8 Tanya was born Thomas but began dressing as a girl at the age of 11 Credit: North News and Pictures

8 Tanya, pictured aged five, with her two sisters, says it was the best thing she ever did Credit: North News and Pictures

"I get chatted up by boys all the time on nights out and no one is any the wiser.

"I even had relationships before my op and no one suspected a thing."

Tanya had a hormone test when she was 15 that showed she had 87 per cent female hormones.

She added: "Having that test just confirmed what I already knew.

8 Tanya want to encourage others who feel trapped in the wrong body to put their old lives behind them Credit: North News and Pictures

"Growing up in the wrong body is tough but I want to encourage people to be who they are on the outside, as well as the inside.

"Before my op it wasn't as easy to be myself, because I lived in fear of being found out, but after my op there was no looking back, I was who I was always meant to be."

Tanya was her Dad's only son and it took him until she had her op for him to finally accept her as a woman.

She said: "He found it tough, I remember being really young, even before I started dressing as a girl and hearing my dad talking to his friends down stairs.

8 Tanya told how she experienced little prejudice since her surgery Credit: North News and Pictures

"They were telling him to just accept that I was different, that it didn't matter, but he just couldn't accept it and I think it ate away at him for years."

Tanya started secondary school as a girl and was accepted by her classmates, but the she says she faced prejudice from teachers.

For the first two weeks of school she was forced to do P.E class with the other boys until a caring teacher noticed there was something different about Thomas, and invited him to do P.E with the girls.

She said: "I think it was easier for me than it is for others going through it, because even before my operation, I still looked so feminine.

8 Tanya had a hormone test when she was 15 that showed she had 87 per cent female hormones Credit: North News and Pictures

"Even when I was really young, my mam's friends used to say I was too pretty to be a boy."

The private care worker for Stockton Council now dreams of becoming a professional model.

She said: "I have been for professional photo shoots and the photographer has always been happy with the results so I'd love to make a career out of modelling if I could."

Until she had her operation, starting relationships could be difficult but maintaining them was almost impossible.

She said: "I had been seeing this boy, and I really liked him. We kissed but we never got intimate, I kept on telling him that I wasn't ready.

8 Tanya in her hospital bed before her operation when she was 21 Credit: North News and Pictures

"It was the truth, I wasn't ready, but I knew in a few months, after my operation, then I would be ready, and he would never have to find out about my past.

"That was the biggest mistake I ever made, when I went for my operation someone told him the truth, and when I came back he was furious. I should have been straight with him from the start."

Since having her operation Tanya says she feels like a new person and has completely put her life as Thomas behind her.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368