'I just wanted to be more comfortable in my own skin' OITNB's Ruby Rose discusses why she decided not to transition from female to male

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'I just wanted to be more comfortable in my own skin' OITNB's Ruby Rose discusses why she decided not to transition from female to male

By Stylist Team

Updated 8 years ago

Orange is the New Black star Ruby Rose has revealed watching a TV show about gender reassignment prompted her to save money from the age of five to transition from female to male.

The 29-year-old model-actress then became more comfortable as a teenager, despite suffering bullying at school, and now describes herself as gender fluid, though uses female pronouns. But discussing how she perceived her gender during childhood, Ruby recalled her father once being asked by a waiter whether she was "a beautiful girl or a handsome boy" and said she "wanted to be a boy". 

"I remember thinking about it and being like, 'I'm a handsome boy' and for the most part of my life I wanted to be a boy," the star told Access Hollywood. "I had this jar that I would collect dollars, in fact it was probably cents, so I had like 19 cents to go towards this surgery that I didn't really know a lot about [...] I think I'd seen a daytime documentary, probably on Oprah or something."

She added: "I was like, 'That's what I’m going to do,' and so I started saving probably from the age of like, five, and when I got to 15, that's when I got more into my body and I shaved my head and my mum was just like, 'I don't know what's going on right now, but if you are happy, then do it'.

"I started to change the way that I dressed and talked and I realised that I didn't want to transition and I just wanted to be more comfortable in my own skin."

Ruby, who is engaged to British designer Phoebe Dahl - granddaughter of novelist Roald Dahl - switches up her look from day to day, memorably once describing how she was mistaken for Justin Bieber by a gaggle of excited fans, explaining, "I was fine with it and I'm totally down to say I look like a boy, because that's the kind of look I was going for that day."

Her turn as Stella Carlin on the the third series of Orange is the New Black, which was released in June, has gained her a legion of new fans, though the Australian star revealed recently that the popularity of the show took her somewhat by surprise, prompting the model and fiancée Phoebe to push back their wedding.

She told People: "When I booked Orange, I thought things were going to change a little bit and I'd be a little more busy, but obviously I underestimated it. I don't think anyone knew that my character would be taken to so well.

"We want to find the time to plan the wedding, but now I think it's going to be, like, next year. Originally it was going to be this year, but I feel like that's a bit too ambitious [...] As it turns out we love being engaged, and I love the word 'fiancée.' It's actually nice that we do wait that extra year and get to enjoy being engaged before we ball-and-chain it."

Images: Rex Features

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