At the age of just 21, Georgie Stone has become a trailblazing child trans activist and adored TV star starring in Aussie soap Neighbours.
Throughout her short career, Georgie has used her spotlight and made history as the first trans character on the soap when she appeared as Mackenzie in 2019.
Happily settled in Melbourne with her family and twin brother Harry, all eyes are on the child star’s next moves as the iconic soap draws to a close after 37 years on air.
From transition to a girl, passionate activism and booming career, let’s take a look at the life of Neighbours star Georgie Stone…
Transgender journey
(Image: georgiestone / Instagram)
When she first visited Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital in 2007 at the age of just seven, Georgie shared that she was experiencing gender diversity and wanted to transition to a girl.
By the age of eight, Georgie made the transition to female after a long court battle over access to hormone blockers.
“I was powerless,” Georgie said of that time.
(Image: Getty Images for Australian LGBTI Awards)
She went on to say: “There was someone up there making a very important decision about my body, it felt really wrong.”
Aged 10, Georgie became the youngest person in Australia to be granted reversible hormone blockers by the court and her treatment set a precedent that led to a change in the law around access to hormone treatment for young trans people.
(Image: TV)
Georgie says she is privileged not to carry a heavy burden of shame around with her, partly because she had supportive parents, although she describes to HuffPost UK how the “process” of dealing with shame is ever-present in her life.
“It’s weird, because I’m proud of who I am and I’m proud to be trans, and then sometimes there are these moments that I just really wish that I wasn’t,” Georgie told the Huffington Post.
Acting dream
Determined to fulfil her dream of acting, the young star set her eyes on Australia’s biggest soap, Neighbours.
Facing an absence of roles for transgender actors, Georgie wrote a letter to one of the show’s heads honchos in a bid to win a role on the soap.
“I literally had to create this role for myself,” Georgie told HuffPost UK.
“Because there are no roles in Australia. None. I had to write to an executive producer to create a role for me.
(Image: georgiestone / Instagram)
“That’s how scarce these opportunities are.”
Having been a permanent character playing Mackenzie on the Australian soap since 2019, Georgie has worked closely with scriptwriters to help assure her character is as representative of the trans experience as possible.
“It is a very personal subject and I wanted it to be done well and respectfully,” said Georgie, speaking of her character’s storyline which sees her transition from male to female.
(Image: Fremantle)
“It is about the surgery,” she continued, “but it’s more about making it clear that this surgery isn’t making Mackenzie a girl – she is already a girl.”
Georgie calls Mackenzie “an alternative reality version of myself”: less confident, less comfortable in her own skin, but ultimately sharing the powerful experience of being trans in this era of change for transgender people.
Activism
(Image: Getty Images for Australian LGBTI Awards)
Having studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Melbourne and enjoyed a big break as an actress on Neighbours, Georgie has won numerous awards for her activism in the LGBTQ+ community.
During her transition, Georgie amassed 16,000 signatures on a Change.org petition regarding gender hormone therapy and secured a pivotal meeting with then Attorney-General George Brandis.
Georgie was featured in the list of 25 LGBTI Australians to Watch in 2017 by the Gay News Network and in 2016
(Image: Getty Images)
Georgie went on to win the 2018 Victorian Young Australian of the Year Award where she welcomed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
At the event she thanked Prince Harry for the Invictus Games, saying that she found its message of celebrating diversity personally inspiring as a proud, young trans woman.
In 2017 she broke ground as a winner of a Human Rights Awards and was honoured with a Medal of the Order of Australia, becoming the youngest person to be recognised that year.
“I want to do it all,” she says. “I feel like I’m finally learning who I am outside of being trans. And that feels good,” she told Woman’s Weekly.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
