A model who was teased as 'Glenda the bender' has achieved her dream of modelling at London Fashion Week.
She looks amazing, don't you think?
Nicole Gibson, 32, was cruelly tormented by playground bullies. She came out as gay in her teens and began wearing women's clothing in her 20s before starting hormone replacement therapy two years ago.
Nicole then blossomed into a curvy 32B model and quit her pub job to pursue a career on the catwalk.
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And this week she strutted down the catwalk in a stunning transparent designer dress as part of a fashion show to challenge the lack of diversity in the industry.
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Nicole, of Horsham, West Sussex, said: "The fashion show was amazing.
"They say you have not really made it as a model until you walk along the catwalk in a sheer dress with your nipples showing - and here I was doing it in my first show.
"Luckily thanks to the hormones I have quite a nice pair now.
"I didn't have time to get nervous, I was just so excited."
Nicole knew she was different from a very young age and would dress up in her grandmother's dresses.
"I didn't know what I was feeling but I knew I wasn't the same as everyone else," she said.
"I used to dress up in dresses and pretend I was Elizabeth Taylor in the Blue Bird - but I told everyone else I was pretending to be a wizard.
"And I might not have ever been on the catwalk before now, but I had plenty practice strutting up and down my living room aged ten to George Michael's Too Funky."
Nicole came out as gay in her teens, but still did not feel right and began sneaking out in dresses and heels in her early 20s.
It wasn't until she was 30 that she plucked up the courage to find out about becoming a woman.
She started taking hormones, developed an envious 32B breasted curvy figure and quit her pub job last year to take up modelling after a flurry of compliments from friends.
Confident Nicole said she was looking forward to her NHS-funded operation.
"I'm starting to get nervous," she said.
"To me it is just something that I have to do. It is like having two horns on my head that I have to get rid of to become the person that I have always felt I was inside."
Nicole was spotted by Models of Diversity - an alternative modelling organisation - after she uploaded shots to an online agency.
It hosted its own show on 6 September at upmarket venue Waterlily ahead of London Fashion Week.
Industry experts were so impressed with Nicole she has already been booked to work at the Ideal Home Show in London later this year.