Lottie is funny, extroverted and determined; she’s one of the most articulate nine-year-olds I’ve ever met.

She has long blonde hair and a cheeky grin, and she’s obsessed with Harry Potter and YouTubers I’ve never heard of.

Lottie is also transgender; she came out to her parents when she was four.

But none of her friends at her school in suburban Melbourne know she’s trans, and her parents want it to stay that way.

“She is still just the same kid — the package is just slightly different,” her mum Karen says.

Lottie was born anatomically male, and was initially raised as a boy, with a different name.

But from the age of about three, Lottie gravitated to toys and clothes that are traditionally thought of as being feminine.

“She really did like all the pink stuff. She loved all the fairy wings, fluttery dresses and beautiful fabrics,” Karen says.

While the principal and some of the teachers know, no-one else at Lottie’s new school knows she’s trans.

“I felt so scared, because I thought that people at my new school wouldn’t understand. So I’m just going to keep this a secret,” Lottie says.

The bullying stopped. So did the pretend sick days.

“Telling myself that I’m trans and no-one knows my secret, that got me out of bed everyday,” Lottie says.

With another mother of a trans child, Karen now runs Parents of Gender Diverse Children, an organisation which advocates for trans and gender diverse young people and provides peer support to their parents.

Since 2016, they have supported more than 700 families around Australia.

Karen says she’s “tremendously grateful” for everything Lottie has brought to their lives.

“A four year old set us on this path, and it’s been an amazingly empowering and powerful thing in our family,” she says.

“She’s a happy, gregarious, often loud little girl, who does all the things little girls enjoy doing,” Michael adds.

“And none of that is related to her being trans. Her being trans is almost a side issue from her being Lottie.”