'Neighbours' is to get its first transgender character.
Georgie Stone (c) Instagram
Activist Georgie Stone, 19, will appear on the Australian daytime soap for a two-month stint and she admitted she wishes she'd had someone like her new alter ego Mackenzie to watch when she was growing up.
Speaking to Australia's Women's Weekly magazine, Georgie said: "She's absolutely the character I wish I had seen as a kid.
"I would have gone to this place of self-acceptance sooner if I had seen a happy, high-achieving trans character growing up.
"I didn't know the word 'trans'. I just knew that I was a girl."
Georgie - who fully transitioned by age eight - was invited to audition for the soap within two hours of pitching the role to producers in an email and has worked closely with the writing team to make sure Mackenzie's story is portrayed accurately.
She said: "I help them to ensure it's truthful at the same time as dramatic by not shying away from the experiences trans people face - coming out, relationships, good allies who listen, internalised shame from bullying."
The teenager's mother, Rebekah, thinks her 'Neighbours' character will be a far more positive representation of trans people than what she encountered in her early research of the subject.
She recalled: "Trans people were described as marginalised, drug addicted, homeless. It told me Georgie was destined for a life of sex work, mental illness and premature death - either murdered or by her own hand.
"That's why Georgie's positive portrayal is so significant."
Tagged in Caitlyn Jenner Laverne Cox