BBC's What It Feels Like for a Girl is the rare type of show that will save lives

It's probably no coincidence, then, that trans representation has dropped sharply on screen as a result. Last year, GLAAD reported the lowest number of trans characters on TV since its 2017-2018 research, a far cry from just a few years prior.

And that decline is even more evident in the realm of film, suggesting that networks and studios are growing more and more afraid of a potential backlash, as if the very existence of trans people is somehow controversial.

So, at this point, it takes a bold show to not just include trans characters, but centre them, giving this marginalised group a much-needed voice at this critical juncture of history. Enter the BBC's What It Feels Like for a Girl, a series that's not just bold, but a defiant scream in the face of bigots who strive to silence trans people completely.

The series, based on Paris Lees's coming-of-age memoir, is set at the turn of the millennium in a former coal mining town near Nottingham where nothing special ever happens. Or so it seems – because Byron (Ellis Howard) doesn't know it yet, but her coming of age journey, from a femme gay boy to an adult trans woman, will end up being the rare type of story that can inspire real change on an individual and even societal level.

Byron's life is in need of saving first, however, as she navigates an era where drugs and sex work are all too easy to come by for a young queer person who's desperate to escape the horrors that come with living among small minds in a small town. But even in a place where slurs and batterings are the norm, queer people can still be found, and it's not long before Byron discovers a chosen family who are more accepting than her own, in turn lifting her up and showing Byron that there's a better, more truthful way to live.

These Fallen Divas, as they call themselves, are chaos incarnate (complimentary), but they also look out for each other and are loyal to a fault. Well, except Sasha (Hannah Jones), an acid-tongued sex worker who always goes a little too far in her rivalry with Byron. But even she's there when it counts, delivering iconic lines like, "Call me Tranny and Susannah," while also offering a shoulder to cry on.

Cis and trans alike, the characters in Byron's world aren't always likeable, including Byron herself, who can be selfish, at times to the detriment of those she loves. Lady Die (Laquarn Lewis), Byron's diehard bestie, learns this at a crucial moment early on. But that approach is vital.

What It Feels Like for a Girl doesn't deify trans people because that's not reality. No efforts are made to conform and make the trans experience more palatable for mainstream viewers, which is exactly why the series works as well as it does.

To be queer is to not conform, so it's heartening to see the script embrace that and do the same, be it through experimental segues or the realities of approaching sex as a trans person, then and now. At no point does What It Feels Like for a Girl shy away from how it feels in the bedroom department, encompassing everything from the sweet, loving embrace of the man you love to getting down on your knees for money.

Lust and love of all kinds are intertwined throughout, depicting trans people as sexually desirable in the same way that cis people take for granted in every other show on screen right now. And it's in that type of acceptance that the series resonates most, be it sexual or otherwise. Byron and the divas have each other, yes, but they're also embraced by others too, even as they come to accept themselves.

Scenes shared between Byron and her Mommar Joe (Hannah Walters) will hit especially hard for any queer people watching while giving a much-needed reminder that age doesn't define your capacity to love someone for who they really are.

Bear in mind that this story is set in the early noughties, a time you might assume would have been less accepting than now. But even two decades ago, there were kind people who saw past one another's differences to understand the truth of a person, underneath it all. In fact, scenes where Byron watches Nadia win the public Big Brother vote in 2004, making her the first trans winner to do so, will have you questioning whether society was actually more progressive 20 years ago than it is today.

It's an ingenious way to show how far we've not come in these intervening years, and how much work still needs to be done to even just reach noughties levels of acceptance when it comes to embracing the trans community. But just as Nadia's triumph gave hope to trans and queer people at the time, Byron's own highs and lows – based on Lees's real-life story – will undoubtedly do the same now.

Because even at a time when Byron and people like her didn't necessarily have the words to define themselves in the same way we do today, she and others still reached the same conclusions about their identities regardless.

Flashbacks to Byron's childhood show how the world around her pushed back every time she expressed her true gender identity, but no matter the era and no matter the odds, queer people will always find a way to live their truth and see themselves in any way they can. At the right moment, even a random Top of the Pops performance by the German techno musician Zombie Nation can open your eyes to something more.

Yet, Byron's story isn't purely a trans journey. There's queer trauma and crucially, there's queer joy too, but Byron herself isn't defined solely in those terms. She has hopes and dreams and love and desires that have nothing to do with her gender identity, and that's key because being trans or queer in any way isn't a monolith.

What It Feels Like for a Girl doesn't try to explain what it feels like for all girls, trans or otherwise. It's the story of Lees, aka Byron, a working class northerner whose gender identity just happens to not align with the body in which she was born. And it's through that specificity that the show finds its strength, humanising the trans experience at a time when it really is needed more than ever.

Whether What It Feels Like for a Girl speaks to a trans teen around Byron's age or a family member who's struggling to understand, there's a raw power to this story that will save lives in the same way It's a Sin did, and perhaps even inspire new storytellers to do the same.

What It Feels Like For A Girl airs on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer from Tuesday 3rd June.

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