Gigi Lazzarato, a Canadian transgender woman and YouTube sensation, better known as Gigi Gorgeous, had a great time during her visit to Australia recently, but the 25-year-old says she was also deeply saddened by the same-sex marriage debate, and the scrutiny it has placed on the trans community.
"It made me really sad personally because I feel like we have come really, really far as a people and the visibility is great," she says from Los Angeles, in relation to the growing number of high profile transgender celebrities there are today.
"So to hear that that's going on in Australia was heartbreaking. I know that things will work out if everyone stays positive."
A survey recently released from the Telethon Kids Institute, called the Trans Pathways survey, discovered that when it came to trans youth aged 14 to 25, four out of five have self-harmed, three in four have been diagnosed with depression, and one in two have attempted suicide.
"It's very, very heartbreaking and depressing to know that so many people are going through a hard time," she says. "I myself can relate in many ways and having really dark periods of your life where you just feel so helpless. So anything that can give our community hope, I'm confident in saying I know that it will reduce that number [of suicides]."
She advocates allowing those that identify as transgender to begin their transition at an early age - a concept she describes as "extremely controversial" for some - to improve their wellbeing.
"I believe that when you know, you know," Gigi says of gender identity. "We need to start getting people in the mindset that people are trans and they don't have to wait until they're really, really old or have gone through puberty to get hormones and start their transition because it affects their happiness."