"I like gardening a lot," says Tia, who is 15. "I like photography, I like listening to music, I like going out and riding bikes." One day she wants a job that involves talking and using her voice. "Just talking to crowds. Not really like a TED talk," she laughs, "but kind of like a TED talk".

Tia is an cisgenderA person whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth. The term was first used in academic articles in the 1990s. girl¹, but says she does not feel particularly masculine or feminine. When she was 10, she enjoyed playing football as much as playing with dolls. She says she misses the freedom of childhood.

"It's a bit unfair really... When you're younger you can literally do anything and get away with it."

Now, she is becoming more interested in clothes and make-up. "I think I'm getting a bit more feminine... when you see your friends wearing make-up, and popular people wearing make-up, and your mum wearing make-up... it's been copied and imprinted on each person, so they care - especially girls - care a lot more about their appearance²."

The pressure to look a certain way also comes from the media and the internet, she says. And it is one of many pressures that teenage girls face in the modern world. "You've got your exams, you've got your social life, you've got family, all of that together can be very pressuring. 

"And then, put on top of that, you have all these articles and applications on social media³, telling you 'you need to be this way'."

She says she read an article about how British teens have some of the lowest wellbeing⁴ in the world. "I find it really upsetting," she says. "It's also because we've just got... I think it's BrexitThe UK's departure from the European Union. ! There's lots of different things happening in our country, and everything put together is a lot of stress."

Then there are personal hardships. Many of her friends have "had it pretty tough". Tia herself felt very low when her grandmother passed away a year-and-a-half ago. She says she feels better now, but "the need for support is very important" in schools and from the government. "It needs to be done more hands-on."

 "Very important," she says. "It's a very big area. Some people think that there's only a boy and a girl, but there isn't." Luckily, "there's less ignorance in our generation. Before, there were loads of people who, if they saw a person who was different to them in race, gender, size, ethnicity, sexuality or whatever, would automatically criticise you." 

"And that's... that will change your entire life. I don't think they understand that the world changes every few seconds... There's no point in poking fun at another person because of who they are." It is time to "open the eyes of the older generation... as a nation, and in the world, we need to change our whole perception of gender".

¹In Tia's case, she is biologically female, and identifies as such.

²In October 2017, a survey by Edelman Intelligence for Dove interviewed 5,165 girls aged 10 to 17, in 14 countries. It found that only 46% of girls had a high body esteem. In Britain, it was 39%. Girls with lower body confidence were more likely to skip meals, and avoid friends and family.

³The same survey by Edelman Intelligence found that girls who used social media were more likely to feel pressure to look certain ways. 

⁴In February 2017, a survey by the Varkey Foundation, of 20,000 people aged 15 to 21, ranked Britain 19th out of 20 for mental well-being.