A few years ago, Paris Lees was best known as the campaigner who kept breaking glass ceilings in British media. Then her teenage years became a BBC drama: What It Feels Like for a Girl began streaming on BBC iPlayer on 3 June 2025 (The Guardian, a UK news outlet). This is the story of how a trans girl from Nottinghamshire turned personal history into one of the most talked-about series of the year.

First transgender columnist at Vogue: Yes · BAFTA-nominated: Yes (for What It Feels Like for a Girl) · Author of What It Feels Like for a Girl: Book and TV series · BBC Radio 4 podcast host: The Flipside

Six facts hold the outline together: a columnist, a memoir, a podcast, and a story that keeps moving between pages and screens.

Notable Role First transgender columnist at British Vogue (Penguin Australia, her publisher)
Signature Work What It Feels Like for a Girl — book and TV series

The short answer is yes: Lees is a transgender woman, and the years before her transition became the spine of her first book.

Her memoir follows a boy named Byron who represents her younger self (Them, a Condé Nast culture outlet).

What makes the story unusual is how openly she turned that material into art rather than confession.

  • Lees hosts The Flipside on BBC Radio 4, a podcast she launched in 2023 (BBC News, the UK broadcaster).
  • Lees is a contributing editor at British Vogue and the magazine’s first transgender columnist.

The Vogue role matters because it normalized a trans woman’s voice inside one of the country’s most institutionally significant titles — not as a guest, but as a standing position.

The answer is personal: the drama is built on Lees’s own adolescence in Nottinghamshire.

She reached back into her teenage years and pulled out a version of herself — and then gave that version a name.

The memoir is based on Lees’s life from age 13 to 18 (Them, a Condé Nast culture outlet).

A trans coming-of-age story that keeps its rough edges is still rare enough to feel like a statement — especially on a mainstream platform like the BBC.

Why this matters: her personal history is now a piece of British television history — and it keeps her story in her own hands.

One book so far — but it became a TV series, a cultural reference point and a career-defining statement.

The dates below trace the arc from Nottinghamshire to the BBC.

The balance is telling: the facts that matter most to her work are documented, while the human details remain alive.

The Guardian’s TV critic on the adaptation:

The Guardian, a UK news outlet

The Guardian, a UK news outlet

Her most famous work is What It Feels Like for a Girl, first a memoir and later a BBC drama that began streaming on BBC iPlayer in June 2025.

The series premiered on BBC iPlayer on 3 June 2025 and is available to stream in the UK.

Lees is a contributing editor at British Vogue and was the magazine’s first transgender columnist.

How can I watch What It Feels Like for a Girl?

The series premiered on BBC iPlayer on 3 June 2025 and is available to stream in the UK.

What is The Flipside podcast about?

The Flipside is a BBC Radio 4 podcast hosted by Lees.