ESPN is taking an in-depth look at the journey of Matt Dawkins, a transgender track and field star who put his Olympic dreams on hold to run as his true self, in a stunning new documentary.
The Huffington Post got an exclusive sneak peek at the documentary, “Life as Matt,” which airs Aug. 4 on ESPN’s “E:60.” In it, the 18-year-old New Jersey native, who was assigned female at birth, opens up about his incredible journey.
“I didn’t want to be treated as a girl, because I wasn’t a girl,” Dawkins says in the clip, which can be viewed above. “It felt awkward, and I wasn’t intuitive enough to explain what I was feeling.”
Also featured in the documentary are members of the Dawkins family, who recall Matt’s earliest expressions of his gender identity even before he came out as trans in 2014.
“Even though the world is talking about this issue like it’s maybe a moral issue, or just an idea, there is a real science to what is going here neurologically,” Matt’s mother, Tammi Grovatt-Dawkins, said. “What you have is a boy brain that forms in a girl’s body.”
Catch the official trailer for the documentary below. “Life as Matt” airs Aug. 4 at 10 p.m. on ESPN.
