Day or night, you won't miss a story with the Liverpool Echo newsletter Sign me up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

As a drag queen and dancer in Liverpool’s clubs, Cal Fox knew all about getting made up and glammed up - a boy who could transform into a beautiful girl.

But for the 25-year-old, dressing as a woman wasn’t enough. Now, having gained a huge social media following worldwide for video blogs as Calvin Fox, he has changed his name and his life for good.

“I could have carried on just dressing up, but that wouldn’t be who I am,” Cal says.

“If you’re a man who dresses as a woman, that’s a fantasy for some people and they enjoy that. It isn’t taken seriously because it’s seen as entertainment or something purely sexual, not real life. But I don’t want to be someone’s fantasy, I want to be someone’s wife.”

For Cal, who lives in Fairfield, the decision has been a long time in the making.

She’s always felt more comfortable as a girl, although she struggled to be her true self growing up.

“I felt more feminine, but I come from a very masculine family,” she explains. “And because I was a boy who liked boys then society said I must be gay so I always saw myself as a gay man. But I didn’t fit into that either, I wasn’t attracted to gay guys, and it was only as I started to explore and educate myself that I realised I was actually a woman who fancied straight men.”

In October last year, Cal spent three months living full-time as a man. “I had to see how that felt and see if it was what I wanted, and I grew a beard and everything, but it just didn’t feel right,” she admits.

In the New Year, she went to the doctor’s and asked to see a transgender specialist. “But the doctor said he didn’t know what to do or who to refer me to, so I went home and Googled and found a group in Liverpool and I’ve got my first appointment with them next month. It’s a long process, I’ve got a friend who has been on a waiting list for two years, but it’s something I’m determined to do.”

Cal is planning to start hormone treatment as soon as possible, to develop breast tissue and more feminine features. She won’t undergo reassignment surgery, though. “I don’t want to lose any part of me, I just want to gain more,” she explains.

“I want to have breasts so people see me on the outside as being a feminine person, a transgender woman, rather than just looking at me as a man in a dress.”

Having taken the first steps, Cal says the next one was the hardest: telling family.

“My mum and I are really close, but when I told her she didn’t get it, she didn’t see why having boobs would make me feel any better. So I had to put myself in her shoes and see it from her point of view because I know a lot of people don’t understand why there’s a need to do it.

“That’s one of the reasons I want to be so open about what I’m doing, because there aren’t any positive trans role models in Liverpool at the moment so people do automatically think of the stereotypes. That was what scared me at first, because I didn’t want people to see me like that. But I think the trans community has been more out there lately, you’ve got Bruce Jenner and Laverne Cox who are really good role models, so that’s what I’d like to be.”

One way in which Cal intends to do that is by taking part in the Miss Transgender UK contest.

“I have had a bit of a backlash because I haven’t started on the hormones yet, but as far as I’m concerned you don’t need operations or medication to be transgender. You don’t need a doctor’s approval, just your own to be who you are.”

Leaving the house for the first time as a transgender woman was a big step. “But I stood on the doorstep, in my maxi dress and Timberland boots, took a deep breath and thought, right, the world’s my oyster,” she laughs. “If you act shy or you look weak then you attract the negative comments and the bullying so I just got out and owned it.”

Clothes and reminders of his old life are still piled up in a spare bedroom - “Calvin isn’t dead, I’m just evolving into another person,” she smiles - but now Cal sees the future from a female perspective.

“I’ve watched a lot of other people’s stories and it’s been really inspiring for me,” she says. “There’s a lady I speak to on Facebook and she’s trans and her boyfriend is a straight man. She lives a happy life and has a happy relationship and that gives me hope that it can happen and it will happen.

“I’ve seen lots of trans people who have families and kids and live normal day to day lives. I’d love a husband, a very open-minded man. I don’t know if it will happen in Liverpool because I think maybe people are too scared of what everyone else thinks of them, but who knows? I’d love that one day.”