DEVIN Valentine always knew he was a boy.

But those around him didn't agree. Identified as a girl, he was seen a a 'tomboy' and told that he would feel differently when he grew up.

The thought horrified him.

"It was like they were saying that one day, I would no longer be me," he remembers.

"I always knew I was a boy," adds the 24-year-old who lives in Weston, Southampton.

"I can't remember a time when I didn't know.

"My first memories are of some of the clothes that I really liked – ones that I thought were more boyish. I would hang onto them long after I'd outgrown them.

"In primary school I used to insist that I was a boy and on the times when I had to wear a skirt, I'd say it was a kilt.

"I remember kids saying 'what will you do if you get boobs' and I said 'I'll cut them off,' which, of course, is what I did."

Devin is keen to share the story of his transition as he wants to help make transgender issues more visible, to help others in a similar position.

Growing up, he was thought he was the only person who felt the way he did, and was unaware that it was possible to transition, medically and socially.

As he grew older, other children of his age became less accepting of difference, and the bullying he was subjected to increased.

"I was bullied for looking butch, and eventually I came out as lesbian, although I knew I wasn't really," he says.

Figures show that between 40 and 60 percent of transgender people attempt suicide.

Devin self-harmed throughout his childhood, first pulling his hair out and then cutting himself.

While his friends were busy with Barbie dolls, bikes and trading Pokemon cards, he began thinking about committing suicide when he was just eight years old.

"I used to cry every night," he remembers.

"I was extremely sad and unhappy.

"Puberty was horrible. I just kind of dealt with it but I increased self-harming."

It wasn't until he was 17 that Devin realised that there was an alternative – that he could transition and live fully as the man he had always known he was.

"I remember being on a train with my two best friends, who were talking about a friend who was transitioning from being assigned female at birth, and how he was getting on hormones. It was the first time I'd heard about being transgender and I said 'hey, that's like me!' and they said 'yes, that makes sense.'"

The next day Devin told his mother, who insisting on cutting his hair short immediately, and they began looking into the steps needed for him to transition.

He was put on hormone inhibitors, which stopped his periods and once he had turned 18, he began taking testosterone.

"I came out as transgender in my sixth form. Some of the teachers were really supportive but others weren't. One of them having a massive go at me for wearing the kippah (it was a Jewish school), which another teacher had encouraged me to do. He said I was being disrespectful, which I said wasn't what I was trying to do.

"Not long after that, some kids from another school came up and started tearing into me about if I was a boy and saying I wasn't. I was really upset and I never went back to school again.

"I was failing at school anyway. I took time out and went back to college in the next academic year with the aim of doing well, rather than making friends."

Discovering that he could transition gave Devin huge hope for his future which had previously been non-existent, but the process has still had its difficulties.

"A problem with the gender identity clinics was that when I started in 2011, they insisted on at least a year of "Real Life Experience" as your gender identity before you have any hormones, which can be very hard," he says.

"It sixth form it was fairly easy, because we just wore suits, but in college it was really difficult. I used to use a binder to flatten my chest down and I was quite big. I managed to hurt my lungs with it because I used to sleep in it.

"I spent two years binding my chest flat before I had top surgery, when I was 19.

"Once I started taking hormones, every change was really welcome. I started to like myself and I'm now really comfortable in my body," adds Devin, who is now two thirds through his lower surgery.

Devin had his first girlfriend at 19, once he had begun his transition, and has been with his partner, Daisy, for almost two years. The couple share their Southampton home with their much-loved cat, Gerald.

"I like to be open," says Devin, a learning support assistant at the University of Southampton and cafe coordinator at The Art House in Southampton Cultural Quarter.

"Some people prefer to just live life as the gender they are, and not broadcast it.

"I'm kind of glad I'm trans. I've had a relatively easy experience. I've taken to testosterone really well, and people can't tell that I'm transgender. I like to be open with people and to be able to talk freely about things, like growing up.

"Because things have gone well for me, I think it's important to be visible, to help other people who are beginning this process. Often families say 'you'll never be with anyone and what about work', so it's good for people to be able to say 'well, he's got a girlfriend and a job, he's doing OK'."

Devin also thinks it's important to speak out to help improve understanding among the wider population.

"A lot of people seem to think that trans is a trend, as if people are doing it for attention!" he says.

"Obviously, transitioning is not a flippant decision, and there is heavy gate keeping of the whole process. Trans has just become more visible.

"If it had been more visible when I was younger, I would have come out sooner.

"In lots of cultures around the world, there aren't just two genders, and the West is beginning to catch up with that.

"Sometimes people say 'when you were a girl...', but I was never a girl," he adds.

"I was always male. I pretended to be a girl and I didn't do a very good job if it."

Devin is now very happy with who he is, and embraces both stereotypically masculine and feminine aspects of himself.

"I didn't want to go through my transition only to have to put myself in another box, as super-male," he says.

"I'm much more in touch with my feminine side now, whereas before I rejected it because I hated it in myself.

"I actually used to be quite a misogynist but now I'm a feminist.

"I remember someone at college was questioning me being given hormones and I said 'you're diabetic. If you didn't have insulin, you'd die. It's the same for me with hormones'. And It's true, I would have killed myself by now," adds Devin, who attempted suicide in his late teens.

"I couldn't see a future for myself before. I couldn't see how I could ever have a relationship. I couldn't bear to be naked on my own, let alone with anyone else.

"I used to hate myself and how I looked and now I'm really comfortable with who I am."

* For local support with gender identity issues, contact www.chrysalis-gii.co.uk