From a young age, Caroline Layt loved sport.

As a four-year-old she started playing football, and at seven realised she was good at it. By her early 20s she was playing rugby league for South Sydney and involved in athletics, something that has continued for most of her life.

But sport also holds another place in her heart, as Caroline believes it helped her during her transition from male to female, and in the subsequent years as she battled discrimination and ignorance.

Caroline Layt (above) is a transgender woman who is a passionate sportsperson

Caroline (pictured above prior to her transition) has told Daily Mail Australia that she believes sport helped her throughout her life

As many transgender people will tell you, transitioning outwardly from the gender they were assigned at birth to their true gender can be extremely difficult and scary.

Today there some trans women in the media, like Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox, who can provide some small amount of hope and representation for young trans people.

Caroline didn't have that. Just a knowledge from a young age that something was wrong with her body, that she wanted to change it.

'From around three or four I knew,' Caroline told Daily Mail Australia. 'I just knew it was wrong to be that way.

'I remember asking my Dad, “Why can’t I be a girl, why can’t I be pretty?”.

Caroline said she knew from when she was 'four or five' that she was transgender, and used to ask her Dad when she could be a girl

As a child and teen, Caroline used to dress as a woman at home when her family wasn't home

In later years Caroline was sent to an all-boys Catholic boarding school, where she said she 'over masculine-ised' herself to try and compensate for the knowledge she had that she was transgender.

'I was dressing at home on holidays as a girl,' she said. 'My mum had fashion shops at the time and I had quite a bit of time to myself, so I just used to dress up all the time. She had all the ladies’ fashionwear in the house so I could just pick and choose what to wear.

'But at school I was the complete opposite, I was totally macho. And that was my way of coping, thinking that no one is going to see it. My school friends tell me I wasn’t a very nice person to be around, I think because of all the secrecy.'

Caroline (left) said that she was very 'macho' at school to try and overcompensate for her feelings about her gender

In 1988 Caroline was selected to be part of the South Sydney training squad

At one point, Caroline's mother found her dressing up in women's clothes. Afterwards she said she thought, 'I’ll be the best boy I can be if I can’t be the girl I want to be'.

She said she pushed down her feelings of being transgender and attracted to men, and focused on traditionally masculine activities like her sporting prowess.

In 1988, at 23, Caroline was selected for the South Sydney training squad, and was getting recognised as a good footballer. But inside, she was in turmoil.

'I was outwardly homophobic [and] transphobic,' she writes on her blog. 'Everything that I held dear to me, and my world including the people in it, were more or less conservative and right wing at the time and heterosexual.'

She was recognised as a good sportsman but inside she said she was in 'turmoil'

Just four days before her 30th her birthday Caroline started taking hormones for her transition

It wasn't until almost seven years later, some months before her 30th birthday, that Caroline decided to transition.

She came out as transgender and began taking hormones. Whilst Caroline finally started to feel like her body was representing her gender, she was living in a country area and subjected to bullying.

'I was getting bullied by people in the town. Everyone knew me because it was a small town,' she explained.

'It was tough. In those early transition stages people can tell that you’re trans and they stare and are rude. When I started passing more it got easier, but there were stages where it would flare up. I got attacked by a 16-year-old kid one day.'

Caroline (second from left) has competed at World Masters Indoor Athletics Championships (above)

Sport has proved to be a haven for Caroline and now she wants to break down barriers

Through all of this, sport proved to be a haven for Caroline.

She started doing athletics again, and played in the Sydney Gay Games, winning four golds, a silver and a bronze. It was, Caroline says, 'one of the most enjoyable experiences' she had in sport.

Whilst attending her high school reunion - where Caroline said all her former classmates embraced her and her gender identity - she played a game of touch footy and decided to play rugby league again, this time as a woman.

She was doing really well, and one coach wanted her to go all the way to the Australian team. Caroline was even nominated for a player of the year award.

She was even a finalist in the women's player of the year awards given by the Sydney Morning Herald

Now Caroline works as a fitness instructor as well as writing about and advocating for transgender rights

But around this time Caroline said she suffered an assault and describes the experience has having her 'humanity taken away'.

Despite the setback, Caroline continued playing the game she loved.

She continued playing up until two years ago, and said that many other women were welcoming to her.

She said she wants young trans people to be themselves, and hold their heads up high

Caroline (centre) spoke at the Change The Game conference combating homophobia and transphobia in sport

Now Caroline writes about sport and acts as an advocate for transgender women in sport.

She spoke at the Change The Game, Combating Homophobia and Transphobia in Sport conference in Sydney earlier this year, and hopes to do more.

'I want to help in breaking down barriers, stereotypes and myths by having our own stories out there,' Caroline said.

'Rather than from the negative angle we often see in the media from people, who are judged as experts in the field, but are often only seeing things from their own perspective of what "they hear" about trans people.'