Pictured: Josie Romero, the eight-year-old 'sex change girl' who was born a boy

dailymail.co.uk ^ | Oct. 15, 2009 | Sara Nelson

[Free ThinkerNY]

Josie Romero loves the colour pink, braiding her hair and having her fingernails painted.

But life has not always been easy for this sweet and charming eight-year-old, who was born in the body of a boy.

The transgender youngster, then called Joseph, knew at the age of four that she was the wrong sex and even told her parents: 'I am really a girl.'

At five, she was refusing to have her hair cut and only wore colours like orange which were nearest to girly pink.

By the time she reached six, Josie had been diagnosed as transgender and was beginning her transition to becoming a female.

Mother Venessia, 42, said: 'When she was a toddler, she was always trying to turn her boy toys into girl toys.

'She used to take her army figures, wrap them up and rock them like a baby.

'As she grew older and started to talk, she always said: "I'm a girl".

'We used to correct her and say: "No you're a boy".

'But by the time she was four, she was insisting: "No I really am a girl".

'We started to realise she wasn't just playing. She would always correct anyone who called her a boy.

'She'd wrap one of my scarves around her waist to make a skirt. It was her favourite game.'

Venessia and her husband Joseph, 42, an airforce engineer, from Vail, Arizona, made the brave decision to tell their daughter's story to help other parents of transexual youngsters.

[Baynative]

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