A DANCE student discovered she was transgender by accident — after dressing up in drag as a joke on a sixth-form leaving do.

Cal Fox, 25, wore the daring outfit for her year twelve leaving party to surprise her friends, only to realise she actually felt more normal dressed as a female than a male.

She now plans to have a breast augmentation and hopes to become a transgender model.

Cal, formerly known as Calvin, said: “I was petrified of dressing in drag, but thought it would be funny to surprise everyone from my college course.

“I felt amazing in my hot pants, heavy make-up and blonde wig — and I loved the attention. I’d always thought I was a gay man, but dressing as a woman, I felt like myself for the first time.”

Cal had worn girls’ clothes once or twice when she was little for fancy dress, but struggled with her identity as a teenager.

Cal said: “I found high school difficult — I didn’t know who I was. Some days I would dress like Tupac, other days I’d look really preppy.

“Dancing helped me to feel confident but because I liked men and most of my friends were female, I just assumed I was a gay man.

“I worked as a male dancer in a nightclub when I turned 18 and I’d see the drag queens parading around. I didn’t particularly identify with them but thought it looked like fun.”

Planning her outfit weeks in advance, Cal bought a blonde crimped wig, leopard-print tights in Primark and borrowed clothes from her aunty.

Her friend Tiara, who’d dabbled in drag before, did her make-up for her, before the pair headed out in Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Cal said: “I almost had a panic attack while I was getting ready, I was so nervous. But at the same time I had butterflies. It was such a new experience.”

“The reaction from friends when we arrived was amazing. Everyone loved my new look and compared me to Katie Price. Some of our teaching staff who’d joined us for a drink weren’t so keen, but I didn’t care.”

A few days later, one of Cal’s friends posted a photo from the evening online and she decided to show her mum Lynda.

Cal said: “Letting my mum see a picture of me dressed in drag was a real turning point. She didn’t actually recognise me at first, but she was supportive of my choice and I knew then that if I wanted to be openly transgender, I could.

“I grew up playing basketball with two masculine brothers, but thankfully my family are open-minded.”

A few months later, having dressed as a woman on several nights out, Cal got her first job in drag.

Cal said: “I was what’s known as a ‘door whore’ — basically standing outside, freezing my balls off for £20 ($A40) a night getting people to come in for a drink!

“A parade would sometimes come past from a famous drag club in Liverpool called Garlands and I’d be so jealous. I just wanted to be one of them.

“I eventually got the manager to notice me one night and he called me a diamond in the rough and offered me a job.”

After performing at Garlands for two years, Cal worked as a drag queen elsewhere but recently left her job, needing a break from the party lifestyle.

Despite having dressed in drag on and off for more than five years, it was only last year that she began to identify as transgender.

Cal said: “I decided at the beginning of 2014 to start living full-time as a woman. It just felt right for me at that time. I love women’s fashion, so showing off my legs in miniskirts was amazing. I had lip fillers, manicures and Botox on my forehead.

“In October, I went back to dressing as a man for a while — I grew a beard and everything. But I didn’t stay that way for long, as I look and feel better as a female. Having said that, I think there is a grey area within each gender, it isn’t just one or the other.

“Now I’m a full-on female again. I’m a size 12 and I wear waist trainers and do specific workouts to help me achieve a womanly figure. The waist trainer sometimes cuts into me, but I say beauty is pain. Kim Kardashian is my inspiration.”

Cal, who is jobless at the moment but plans to go into modelling, hopes to inspire other transgender people with her outlook.

She says: “I have accepted myself for who I am. I am not male or female, I am trans. I would like breast implants at some point, but I won’t be having any surgery to take anything away. I am all about adding things, not taking them away!

“Since becoming transgender I haven’t dated anybody. Though I’m an exhibitionist and sometimes go out clubbing in just my underwear, I’m shy when it comes to guys and I don’t sleep around.

“But I’m not a sob story. I’m trying to show the world that people can be whoever they want to be.”