A girl who had a sex change at the age of 12 is set to become an international singing superstar.

Kim Petras – originally known as Tim Petras – was diagnosed as a transsexual by doctors and started undergoing the hormonal change to become a girl before her teenage years began.

Kim Petras: World's youngest sex-change operation

Kim Petras
Kim Petras, the German boy who three years ago became the world's youngest person to start hormone treatments for a sex change operation, has been given her first modelling assignment. Now aged 14, Kim has been signed up to do a photo shoot for a German c
Kim Petras, the German boy who at the age of 12 became the world's youngest person to start hormone treatments for a sex change operation, has been signed up by a German record label

From the Telegraph:

German teenager Kim Petras has become the world’s youngest transsexual after undergoing an operation at the age of just 16.

The procedure – carried out in secret and paid for by the German health service – was authorised after psychologists confirmed that she was “without doubt a girl in a boy’s body”.

It is the world’s youngest ever full sex change operation and Kim – born Tim -had been undergoing hormone therapy since the age of 12.

Dr Bernd Meyenburg who heads the Psychiatric Special Outpatient Clinic for Children and Adolescents with Identity Disorders at the University of Frankfurt Hospital said: “Very few youth psychiatrists have any experience with transsexual developments. The families wander from one psychiatrist to the next.

“I was always against such operations on children so young but after seeing how happy one of my patients was and how well adjusted after returning from having the operation abroad while still a teenager – I realised that in some cases it is the right decision.

“Kim is such a case – she always knew what she wanted.”

Kim overcame years of taunts and bullying to achieve her dream of becoming a girl and has begun a modelling career and launched a CD.

Now aged 16, she said: “I was asked if I feel like a woman now – but the truth is I have always felt like a woman – I just ended up in the wrong body.”

And she can’t wait for the summer so she can try out a whole new wardrobe of tight fitting clothes.

She said: “I had a problem because I couldn’t wear skinny stuff, but now I can wear whatever I want to. I really am looking forward to going swimming like everyone else and to wearing tight jeans that show off my figure. They are so tight, I always felt quite uncomfortable in them until now.

“Now I can go as tight as I want to. I used to wear mini skirts too, but yes, now even the tight ones can be part of my wardrobe.

“I can enjoy swimming, and bikinis, go in the changing rooms without a problem, everything has changed because of this operation. I just can’t wait to put on my favourite bathing suit and go swimming like I’ve never done before.”

“I had to wait until my 16th birthday but once that was past I was able legally to have the operation. I know that because of my past people will always bring up the subject, I can’t get away from it. But I hope that one day I might be better known for something else like my music.”

Kim, who is now studying fashion design, began calling herself a girl when she was just two years old.

Her dad Lutz said: “I suppose it took me longer than my wife to accept it, but Kim is a very persuasive girl, she knows what she wants and how to get it. I am very proud of what she has achieved, how she has managed to get there and how she sticks to her dreams no matter how hard and painful they are to follow.”

Last year Kim became a model for a nationwide German hair salon chain.

Director Giuseppe Pino Galanti said: “Kim fits perfectly with the image we want to portray. She is very pretty, and has a lot of style and personality, both of which are equally important. Our stylists produce work that is sassy, trendy and unique, just like Kim.”