Lexi’s journey to her feminine side

South Hedland resident Lexi Webb knew she was different from a very young age.

By the time she was five years old she was looking in the mirror and felt like a stranger was staring back.

Ms Webb was born Lester Julian Webb, but was “reborn” two years ago as Lexi Jade Webb after extensive gender reassignment surgery.

“I knew at a very young age I didn’t want to be male,” she said.

“I turned two this year. I prefer my new age.”

She was born and raised in Perth but has been living in Port Hedland for 13 years, and prior to that did a 10-year stint in Newman.

“I needed a trade so I became a mechanic,” she said.

“But I’ve done my nail technicians course, so I know how to do nails.”

Ms Webb seemed almost lackadaisical about her journey of self-discovery when she talked to the Telegraph last Thursday.

“I started looking into gender stuff when I was about 35 but I didn’t really know what I was looking for, or what I was looking at,” she said.

“I did the research and I started looking on the net and finding out what it was all about and wondering if I was what I was.

“Then I did something which I found out later was quite dangerous and started self-medicating.”

Ms Webb said it was difficult to tell her family about her gender journey, but coming clean was inevitable.

“When the girly parts stared to grow it reached the point where I had to tell my family, that was pretty hard,” she said.

“It got to the point where I couldn’t take my shirt off at the beach without it being quite evident.

“My brother doesn’t want anything more to do with me – he’s a real man’s man – he told me I was making a mistake and not to do it.

“I think once he realises it’s not about him it’s about me he might come around – he might not.

“My sister was cool, she just threatened me and said ‘if you get bigger tits (than me) I’ll kill you’.”

Surprisingly, Ms Webb said she had never experienced any negative feedback or behaviour from men while living and working in the Pilbara.

She attributed this to the fact that she is, and always has been, interested in women – a situation she described as being “very unusual”.

“When (men) found out I was changing my gender from male to female to become a lesbian (they knew I was) no threat,” she said.

“If I was going to change my gender to become a women interested in men I would be a threat.”

According to Ms Webb, local men were more curious about her story than offended.

She said sometimes men tended to be a bit standoffish, but others were totally at ease.

“When they realise it’s not going to affect their life, and it shouldn’t, they are alright,” she said.

“The women are OK with it, the men sort of say, ‘you did what to what’.”

Although she has never been confronted in public about her appearance, she said men had tried to “pick her up” in the past.

“Last time I was at the Pier I had a guy try and pick me up for three hours,” she said.

“I said ‘look this is really nice, but I’m interested in women’ and his reply was ‘good on you, love’.”

Although seemingly at ease with herself, Ms Webb said it had been quite an extreme physical and mental journey to become the women she was today.

“Once I started telling everybody I thought I’d better go and see a doctor, the doctor put me onto an endocrinologist, I couldn’t see the endocrinologist without seeing a psychiatrist,” she said.

“After four sessions with (the psychiatrist) he said ‘I think you’re doing the right thing’.”

Ms Webb said a lot of men were curious about her surgery, which was done in Thailand for a fraction of the cost of the quoted $65,000 Australian price.

“I got a package deal in Thailand, boobs and vagina for 13 grand,” she said.

“A lot of guys ask me if my vagina works.

“The answer is yes, it took me a year and a half to figure it out, but there’s no instructions with it.

“It was pretty much like turning a glove inside out.”

Ms Webb was surprised that complete strangers in Port Hedland knew who she was.

She said people had approached her on the street and said “I know you”.

“I don’t have a problem with it, if people aren’t uncomfortable with it then don’t talk to me, leave me alone, I’m comfortable now,” she said.