A GIRL trapped in a boy’s body and her mum clashed with a social commentator on a TV show today after she suggested it could be just a phase.

Livvy James, aged 10, and mum Saffron, aged 37, of Worcester were involved in a heated debate with journalist, novelist and broadcaster Anne Atkins on ITV’s This Morning today.

Ms Atkins said that between the ages of eight and 10 she strongly wanted to be a boy. She said: “I was eight. I dressed as a boy. I wanted very strongly to be a boy."

But she said it was just a phase she grew out of and it would have ‘ruined her life’ if she had been encouraged to go in that direction.

Mrs James said Mrs Atkins was someone with “no experience” of the issue which has once again come to national attention because of Zach Avery, the five-year-old with Gender Identity Disorder from Essex who has chosen to live life as a girl.

Livvy said to Ms Atkins: “I really don’t care what you say because you say I can dress as a boy, that you have got nothing against that, but it is nothing like transgender. You have no right to tell anyone they’re too young to know who they want to be. That’s not the same as self-harming because you want to be a different gender.”