A GIRL trapped in a boy’s body says she sometimes feels suicidal but is determined to give hope to others like her.

Livvy James, aged 10, of Worcester, has gender dysphoria which means she was born a boy but feels she has always been a girl.

We have previously reported how Livvy, which is an assumed name, was called a “freak” after she returned to her school dressed as a girl for the first time last September.

Her family launched an online petition on Thursday against the use of terms in the media which include “sex-swap/change’, ‘tranny’, ‘gender pot’, ‘gender confused’ and ‘gender bender’ because of the emotional scars it leaves on transgender people.

The petition argues that people with gender identity issues are being murdered, beaten, threatened, bullied, teased, intimidated, disowned and are prone to suicide and self-harm.

When today's Worcester News went to press the petition had already attracted 224 signatures and many positive comments.

Livvy’s mum, Saffy, 37, plans to send the petition to the Press Association when she gets enough signatures.

Livvy, speaking about her life, said: “The other day I was whacking my head against the wall and the bed. I just feel frustrated and angry because, at that point life wasn’t going well and someone at school had said something, annoying me and making my best friend upset. I have a few moments where I do feel suicidal.

I don’t want any more people to die because of this.”

She has to use the disabled toilets at school to change during PE.

She said when she went into the girls’ changing rooms some of her classmates said: “Oooh! Get out! You’re a boy.”

Livvy said: “It does feel lonely but I would rather be by myself than be with the boys because I’m a girl and I find it disturbing.”

Livvy will have to wait until she is 12 to have hormone blockers, 16 before she is given female hormones and 18 before she has gender reassignment surgery, which the family hope to pay for themselves, probably in Thailand.

Her mum, who insists the school has been brilliant throughout, said: “The problem is now she is at that age where you have a host of other problems, such as puberty and sleepovers.

“Things are happening to her body she doesn’t want to happen.

"She is coming to the age where boys and girls are interested in each other. She is freaking out.

"She plays it down but is worried about having to wait until she is 18 to have her body fixed. People don’t choose their gender.”

Referring to the hormone blockers that Livvy will take from the age of 12 her mum said: “They’re not ‘Peter Pan pills’. It’s not that they don’t want to grow up, it’s that they don’t want to grow up in the wrong body.

"There’s no confusion. She has said to me ‘I would rather be dead than live in this body’.”

However, Livvy’s school work has improved dramatically since she returned as a girl. Saffy said: “She’s not sick before she goes to school.

She doesn’t have stomach aches or headaches. She is not living a lie. She feels like she is free from a prison.”

To sign the petition click here.