Trans woman Georgie Stone's young life has been marked by firsts and achievements. Notably, the 17-year-old Australian led a high-profile petition to end a "discriminatory" legal barrier. Gary Nunn reports from Sydney.

The successful campaign by Georgie, and others, affects thousands.

In a landmark ruling in November, it was decided that young transgender people in Australia will no longer have to go through the nation's Family Court to access hormone treatment - a vital stage of transitioning.

It was, Georgie says, "unfair and discriminatory that we had to ask a complete stranger who isn't an expert for treatment that affects our bodies, after we'd already been approved by medical professionals".

Australia was the only country where this step was deemed necessary, yet no application was ever refused. Georgie knows first-hand how "stressful and harmful" this step was; she was one of the last people required to do it.

"It felt weird," she says. "I was powerless - I was 15, and there was someone up there making a very important decision about my body. It was out of my hands, but I knew this was really wrong."

Childhood challenges

Aged two, Georgie told her mum she "wanted a vagina". By two-and-a-half, she knew who she really wanted to be, but a long and sometimes painful journey was ahead.

She describes it as a "mixed bag" but stresses her gratitude for her parents' support. "I was bullied, but I had friends and a twin brother who stood up for me," she says. "My primary school made me use the disabled toilets, wouldn't let me wear the female uniform and didn't know how to support me."

Georgie grew up before there was much consideration around pronouns: "I'd be called out for a line as George or 'he'. That'd really hurt, but people didn't know any better."

When she first visited Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital in 2007, Georgie, then aged seven, was the only patient that year to receive treatment for gender dysphoria. By eight, Georgie had fully transitioned within the family; by nine she'd done so publicly.

Aged 10, she became the youngest person in Australia to be granted hormone blockers by the court. At 15, she started hormone replacement therapy and, about a year later, her story was featured on a top-rating TV programme, Australian Story.

Georgie's rising media profile gave her a platform to speak out and campaign. She was armed with two formidable tools: her confident eloquence and an online petition.

She says: "Through telling our stories, we got this out into the open. It'd been an issue not many knew or cared about, and we changed that through bipartisan support."

Travelling to parliament to meet MPs, her petition was indispensable: "We printed out the almost 16,000 names and no sooner had I shaken an MP's [hand], I'd show them - look - this is all the people supporting this.

"The Change.org petition was such a great conversation opener and the politicians could see all the people that wanted their support. It was a great physical way to show them the gravity of the issue."