It takes an amazing amount of courage for any person to start the journey to transition into their true gender, but it’s almost impossible to imagine how much harder it must be when you are a 15 year old and the only child of a farming couple in rural Wales.  This is subject of a new documentary from the UK’s BBC TV which captures an extraordinary story of a year in the life of Llyr Jones which started when she took the first faltering steps as a girl, and ending 12 months later as a confident young woman.

Llyr is disarmingly charming, but then so too are her very supportive parents Diana and Huw who, despite being a very traditional Welsh-speaking family, accepted that this was the only way their child would ever be happy.  Huw was honest enough to admit that the news at first blind-sided him, but he had always been aware that Llyr was ‘different’ than other children, and so had embraced his child’s needs.  However he confessed at not having had the courage to share the news of Llyr’s transitioning with his own mother, a move he deeply regretted when she found out anyway.

Being fearless enough to share their very personal story so publicly like this doesn’t just makes an important contribution to the continuing dialogue about the transgender community, but it sends a very positive signal to other young teens in similar situations, that there are happy endings to these stories some times.

Until a few days ago, this short film was only available to view in the UK, but now thanks to the wonders of YouTube it can be seen everywhere and will hopefully attract the global audience that this uplifting heartwarming story so deserves.