Our daughter is now our son

For five years, Jack McFadyen was Lyla – the little girl his parents had always dreamed of. As Jack begins life as a boy, Michael Sheather meets the parents who made the toughest – and easiest – decision of their lives.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY EAMON GALLAGHER STYLING BY MATTIE CRONAN

FOR SARAH MCFADYEN, the realisation that her five-year-old daughter was actually her five-year-old son came all too publicly, in the girl’s dress aisle of a department store in suburban Melbourne. “I turned a corner and saw all these beautiful little girl dresses hanging in a row, gorgeous little Collette Dinnigan dresses that took my breath away,” recalls Sarah, 32. “And in that same moment, I saw what my future was really going to be like. I would never be the mother of the bride. I would never walk my daughter down the aisle at her wedding. I would never be the favourite grandmother. “All I ever wanted was a little girl. I had my heart set on having a little girl who I could have afternoon tea parties with, who…

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The Australian Women's Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, August 2015

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