Stephanie Hirst used to live her life as DJ Simon Hirst.

Stephanie Hirst is 39 years old, but she has only been herself for one month.

Before that, she was known as Simon Hirst, a popular Northern DJ and radio show host.

Last month, she 'came out' about being transgender by going onto BBC 5 Live and telling the world that she would no longer be living her life as Simon – she'd be Stephanie.

Stephanie Hirst.

"It's the best thing I have ever, ever done," she tells me. "I didn't feel like I was connected to the world all my life. I had this feeling of being disjointed from my life. The thing is, now I actually feel plugged in. I feel like someone's plugged me in and switched me on. I've been me a month now.


"I'm a month old."

Hirst expected a barrage of online abuse for speaking up about being transgender. But instead, she's received thousands of supportive messages. "Every single thing has been positive. Everywhere I go I get hugged. I was at a service station last week, I got hugged. In my supermarket, the same happened there. I'm stood buying a sandwich and someone says, well done. They follow it with a hug.

"There have been a few keyboard warriors as I like to call them. It was literally a handful of people. It's a sticks and stones mentality. I'd expected a lot more. I was prepared to lose absolutely everything."

Hirst has known for most of her life that she wanted to be a woman. She tells me about dressing up in her mum's clothes at the age of eight, and using her Bic razor on her legs when she was 16: "It felt amazing, and I felt that's how they should feel."

She tried to tell her mother the truth when she was 16 years old, but she did it dressed head-to-toe in her mum's clothes. "She wasn't angry, but it kind of put me back in the closet a little bit," explains Hirst. "I think for a short period of time I convinced myself it was cross-dressing. Operations scared me. There was no internet so I just didn't have the knowledge."

The lack of internet, which would seem inconceivable to teenagers now, meant that Hirst barely had any information about gender dysphoria, or what options were available to her. Things changed when she finally bought a computer, aged 21.

"The first thing I did, I went on Ask Jeeves and I searched for 'transsexual'. That was the first thing I searched for because it was information." But she waited more than a decade before starting the transition process.

'It was death or transition'

"I would have periods where I'd be fine then I'd crash and climb back up and everything would be fine and I'd crash again," she says. "It was like someone constantly prodding you in the arm. It was always there and it got worse as I got older. It got to a point where I couldn't deny it anymore. It was death or transition, absolutely."

Hirst tells me that she thinks this is why she threw herself into radio: "I was completely fulfilled in my work. That's how I managed to get the fulfilment in life, I think. I was gluing bits of good stuff together so I could make myself feel better."

But it wasn't enough – she still struggled with her life as Simon. "I was getting to a point where I was sitting on my kitchen floor with my back slumped against the cabinets, my head in my hands, rocking, saying, make it stop, please make it stop, and screaming out loud. Getting up and trying to carry on as normal and seeing friends, it got very hard at times."

At one point, she started thinking about ways that she could kill herself. "I'd never plotted anything like that in my mind ever. I was in fear of losing absolutely everything."

It was at that point that Hirst confided to friends, who told her to see her GP. That was three years ago, and it was the start of her pathway to becoming Stephanie – or Steph, as her friends know her. "I take pictures of myself every few weeks in the mirror and I see my body changing because I'm on hormone patches," she explains.

'I'm in the club of gender inequality'

"I was in the shower the other day and I grabbed my bottom and realised it no longer fits in my hand. I'm getting a booty. Kim Kardashian eat your heart out."

But it isn't just the physical changes that Stephanie is noticing – it's life as a woman, complete with a healthy dollop of everyday sexism. "I've had some wolf whistles," she says. "When I was male I never did that because I instinctively knew how it would make women feel. It is a little strange. At the time, when it first happened and I was first wolf-whistled, it made me feel good because it confirmed I passed [as a woman]. But I've not had it a lot yet. I'm sure it will."

She's also experienced the other 'chivalrous' side of gender inequality, where men have helped carry her bags and open doors for her. Although she adds: "I keep holding doors open for other people because I'm defaulted to that."

"I think I am getting an insight bit by bit. I'm being invited into the club of gender inequality, the ladies' club. I've noticed female friends talk to me much more openly now."

Hirst still hasn't had her final operation – but when she does, she doesn't want it on the NHS. "I'm going to fund the final operation myself because the NHS is stretched enough and I'd rather that someone else transgender who needs that, it could go to them. I'm lucky I can afford it myself."

Now that she has 'come out', and has had such a positive response, she wants to help other people in her position. "One of my old bosses said you can save someone's life with this," she tells me. "It's why I went public.

I want to show the general public that it's not something which you see the occasional thing written and you think, freak, weirdo, you're messing with nature. It's nothing about that – it's biological. I hope it educates people."

'I've found true happiness'

These days I seem to be going to bed with a smile on my face. I've finally found true happiness. ��nite nite. X pic.twitter.com/7j4N17EeyZ — Stephanie Hirst (@hirstydose) November 11, 2014

There have been reports that her bosses at Capital FM Yorkshire told Hirst that they "did not think gender reassignment was suitable or commercially viable content." It is thought that Hirst quit her job at the station after 11 years because of this.

It has sparked a number of support groups on Facebook, with almost 100,000 supporters are calling for her to come back on the radio. But Hirst says that she received nothing but support from the radio station, and quit because she was exhausted. She has every intention of returning - especially after seeing how much support she has.

"I've got to go back to entertaining them at some point. The one thing I didn't want is for this to consume every waking moment, because it had done it for years. Now that buzzing in my head isn't there anymore. It's because I'm obviously 'full-time' now, so I want to try to carry on with things as normal."

It's in the most normal moments that she truly appreciates being Stephanie. She recently tweeted an image of herself falling asleep with a smile on her face, and wrote: "These days I seem to be going to bed with a smile on my face. I've finally found true happiness."

She tells me about a similar moment when she was in the kitchen recently: "I was filling the dishwasher and I saw myself there reflected in the window and I said to myself, alone, out loud: 'I wouldn't go back to being a boy for a gold pig'.

"I really wouldn't."

Telegraph, London