{"id":1435514,"date":"2025-06-03T18:12:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T17:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/?p=1435514"},"modified":"2025-06-03T18:17:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T17:17:28","slug":"who-is-paris-lees-what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-bbc3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/community\/who-is-paris-lees-what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-bbc3\/","title":{"rendered":"How Paris Lees became a UK queer icon"},"content":{"rendered":"

WORDS BY\u00a0KATIE BASKERVILLE<\/strong><\/p>\n

What It Feels Like For A Girl, a television adaptation of Paris Lees’ experimental, exhilarating memoir, has just dropped on BBC iPlayer. Here’s where you might recognise its creator.<\/p>\n

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If you’re anything like us, you’ve already binge-watched What It Feels Like For A Girl<\/span><\/i><\/a>, the catty, chaotic coming-of-age story following a young Byron (played by Ellis Howard<\/a>) as they navigate growing up queer in the Midlands during the early aughts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the show taps into the current wave of Y2K nostalgia sweeping our screens, is actually an adaptation of the 2021 memoir by the same name written by UK author Paris Lees<\/a>. But who is Paris Lees, and what makes her so influential?<\/p>\n

Who is Paris Lees?<\/h2>\n

ICYMI: Paris Lees is an author, broadcaster, and journalist who rose to prominence as a voice in political and LGBTQIA+ media throughout the 2010s.<\/p>\n

Starting out right here at Gay Times<\/em> she went on to become\u00a0an award-winning author, a whip-smart columnist, the first trans woman to present BBC Radio 1 and Channel 4 News, and a tireless trans rights campaigner.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2021, she released a well-received memoir about her childhood growing up in the ex-mining town of Hucknall, Nottinghamshire. In the book, she recounts instances of family struggle, bullying, statutory rape and underage sex work, as well as finding an effervescent friendship group of fellow queer and trans young people she dubs the ‘Fallen Divas’ and diving into the Nottingham club scene.<\/p>\n

The memoir also explores Lees’ first-hand experience of the criminal justice system, after she spent eight months in a young offenders’ institute after robbing a client. As she told the BBC<\/em> in 2013<\/a>: “I had a lot of time for thinking when I was in prison.” <\/span>While incarcerated, she explored art therapy and was able to envisage a future lived as her true self.<\/p>\n

She was released early on a curfew and enrolled back into college to attain her A-levels. However, she chose not to pursue gender-affirming care while still in Nottinghamshire.<\/span>“I didn’t feel like I could transition at college because it was a little bit rough. I didn’t think I could face it,” she told the BBC<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This perspective changed following the death of her beloved grandmother, with whom she lived at points throughout her life. “She died and I just thought, ‘do you know what, life is too short. I can’t do this, I need to express myself and who I am,” she has said.<\/p>\n

Lees then enrolled in the University of Brighton, graduating <\/span>in 2009 with a BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature, later receiving an <\/span>honorary doctorate degree from the university in 2016<\/span><\/a>, for “making a major contribution to transgender identity in contemporary society through her work as a journalist and social commentator.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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@gaytimes<\/a> For GAY TIMES’ 40th birthday, writer Paris Lees is delving into the archives \ud83d\udcd6 #magazine<\/a> #behindthescenes<\/a> #bts<\/a> #archive<\/a> #lgbtqhistory<\/a> #queerhistory<\/a> #historytime<\/a> #trans<\/a> #transjoy<\/a> #transpride<\/a> \u266c original sound – GAY TIMES<\/a><\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n