TSCHAN ANDREWS: For me, gender was always very present. I had no concept of it, but I was always policed. Everything I did was fundamentally wrong because it was an expression of what was seen as not what boys should do, I guess. That's the only reason I was aware of it. I remember when I first started school, and everyone started going, "Oh, the girls do this and the boys play football." I thought we were just pretending. I thought you could go, "I'm a boy today," or, "I'm a girl today." I used to think it was like a dress-up game.



My mum kicked me out when I was 17. There's this charity in London called Nightstop. You stay with a different family every night. I did that for a while and then I stayed with my friend. But obviously, when you're 17, you don't know anything, you haven't got any money. My nan contacted me and I stayed with her for a while. But she put me in fear—"You're going to be raped, you'll end up homeless"—so I ended up going back home. But it was worse than ever. I didn't feel comfortable or safe leaving my room.



I had these trans friends who were in Stonewall Housing, so I applied for that. I also found out about the Albert Kennedy Trust, which is a charity for young LGBT people. (And one thing I have to mention is that [with] most homeless LGBT people, 90% of them are people of color. It's definitely a cultural thing, and a level of massive ignorance.) I contacted them and they provided me with support and lodging, and was how I met my two gay foster parents. Finding a foster family fundamentally changed my life. With them being gay as well, it was massively beneficial. Really, for the first time I could have conversations. Whenever I had an opinion before, I’d be shut down and told, "Shut up, you're just a stupid poof," or something like that. It was always like, "your opinion doesn't matter, you're disgusting." Whereas being with them, they taught me self-esteem.



When I was with [the Albert Kennedy Trust], I always used to get asked to do shoots; I did one with David Bailey. One of the people who works at the charity is best friends with the director of [agency] Models 1, who saw me at some event. They took me on for about six months, but at the time there was no such thing as a trans model, so they didn't know how to market me. They explained that their main client was Burberry, and if you don't fit that profile...

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