Where to begin? I'm twenty-two years old and I was born in Hermosa, Mexico. I have two older brothers and one younger brother, who all treat and protect me like a sister. I knew that I wanted to be a girl when I was four. I dressed up in my mother's clothes and brushed her hair. My three brothers used to play baseball but I wanted to play Barbie. One Christmas my grandfather put a Barbie under my cousin's bed and a fire engine under mine. I swapped them round.

When I was eleven, I met someone like me, somebody who also wanted to be a girl. He suggested I get some hormones to make my breasts grow and make me more like a girl. I got the pills. I’d tell the pharmacist I was buying them for my mother. My breasts grew and I needed to wear a bra. At twelve I wore a miniskirt. Then the principal said I was a bad influence and kicked me out of school. The children all liked me, so they went on strike, but it didn't work. I had to go home and tell my parents.

My mother said, ‘You’re my son, I love you and I will support you whatever you want to be.’ She was very liberal. When my mother was pregnant with me she said she was going to have a beautiful daughter. I think it was meant to be. My dad didn’t seem surprised. He already knew. But my brothers really supported me. My parents took me to a psychologist, who warned them that I was very determined and would go ahead with this, with or without their support. They were supportive, but I had to move to another school, and I didn't fit in there so I ran away when I was fourteen.

I spent six months working at a strip club. I used to keep my shorts on so the customers could only put their money in the side. I made a lot of money, enough for my first breast implants. The psychologists had been against it, of course. Finally my mother tracked me down, and sent me to live with a relative and go to Hollywood High School in LA at 15. Everyone there knew me as a girl. I used to ask girls for a Tampax. But I fell for a boy and he found out my secret. The next day it was all around the school and I walked out.

I moved to New York to live with my uncle and started working in his estate agency. I started dating men there, but I still kept everything secret. I went out with one guy for six months when I was eighteen. He asked me to marry him, so of course I had to tell him, and he cried for a week. Because of his reaction I thought, ‘I am never going to do this again.’ I learned my lesson. I have to be honest about who I am. If someone asks me I will tell them, if someone gets attached to me, I’ll tell them, but otherwise I won’t.

When I'm not in Europe, I still live in New York, where I work as a model. I haven't had any operations, except on my chest. I love my life, I love the way I am, and that's the most important thing. My mother always says to me, 'Why would you want to be half-and-half? Why don't you want to be a complete woman?' But I just love myself and I'm really enjoying my life. I'm simply not ready for it. I think it's such a huge decision and you have to be prepared for the whole process.

As for the show? I did it because I wanted to know if real love exists. Can a person fall in love? I don't feel used by it. I was trying to be myself and if anyone had asked me about myself I would have told them. Some of them only spent three hours with me, I was dating six at one time. The guys would try to be perfect for me, but they completely changed afterwards. Also, I want to say that I would never lift my skirt up on national TV. My mother brought me up very well. My hope is that the program can actually help people understand better what people like me are all about.