neil something campaign and say there will launch on monday. you watching d w, that's all for now, but stay with us. sports wife is next with a profile of transgender racing driver. charlie martin and don't forget you can get all the latest news and information around the clock on our website d, w dot com. i'm michael. ok. thanks for watching. closely. listen carefully. don't know how do you miss to the girl? ah, feel the magic discover the world around you.

subscribe to d w documentary on youtube. sometimes the big jump right out at you. t d highlights for she knew in books every week. not the not oh oh oh oh oh boy, i figured out how it's gonna take my life. i've seen myself in barrett, i just realized i don't even have any connection with the preston stand back anymore. oh, as the point living shannon living as you growing up,

there were 2 things that charlie martin was convinced of the 1st that she was trans and didn't identify as meal the gender. she'd been assigned in both. the 2nd, the place she felt most at home was the race track, the 3rd that she'd never be able to reconcile these 2 world. i am charlie martin, i'm a professional racing driver. i'm in l g b t, t plus activist. i'm hoping to be the 1st trans driver at the 24 hours of lamar. i grew up feeling very limited because knowing that i was transgender for me and then they can actually physically transition and so and so on. so when i saw her, it was like someone telling me world isn't flat, you know, i can really, really eureka moment in my life. and i think back then that the,

the thinking was very much the if you avoid it feels our girl. you shouldn't want to climb trees and get dirty and tend your fight pilot are racing call try if he should be playing with those and and so on. and so on. i this was not kind of kit when i was about a 1000000 years old. i had a friend container and his dantes to race, not professionally, but you know, very competitively at club level. and he said, yeah, you know, we're going racing. if you're calm, i'd never actually been to race track and especially being in the paddock with all the cars, being surrounded by, by the color. it's a very kind of intoxicating smell, being in the environment, you know, the capital are in an interest in the noise and do something about it. they just yeah, just let a real spark of enthusiasm in me and then my further and i went from them on for 3

years running t 1001233 years the band competed eventually one and that with yeah, i mean that was like, no think i'd have seen her now. i don't really know i year and a few diversity. i made up my mind. this is it. i'm going to try and do some. some racing myself put this puzzle to 5. was like a half finished project. ro cage had a 16 valve engine, but that was, it was like, had 4 wheels. no doors on. it was like, everything was stripped out of it, but it was something i could afford. the 1st thing i did, she was a sprint, a cobra. but nonetheless, i was there, i was saying during motor sports on my own steam. and that was a great feeling all coming in that

period when i'm starting to struggle. very struggle with my my gender identity and i wake up in the morning and see myself in the mirror and i just realized, yeah, i don't, i don't even have any connection with the person staring back at me anymore. at nothing in my life really matter to me any more because it's a slight will was the point living, you're not living you i figured out how's gonna take my life and i couldn't, i, you know, i was at a point where i just couldn't even function you know, i could barely get through the day i was of slept breaking down and i thought to myself, this is this wrong. i can't do this. and that was january 2012 that i, i decided okay,

this is it. i'm going to transition say transition was the thing that i wanted most in my life. and yet at the same time, it was the scariest thing could imagine. it was this, you know, it was like this huge mountain. the i was terrified of confronting. and i looked to might sport and i just thought no one's gonna accept me in that space. i'd never seen any l t b t key plus visibility. and because that was such a happy place for me, i couldn't buy the idea of that being turned around and being space where i didn't feel welcome and i felt rejected. and so i just thought, well, i'd just give up, you know, i don't, i don't want this honeymoon. charlie's family and friends convinced her not to give up andrea thing. 9 months into her medical transition, which involved hormone di placement therapy and surgery. she returned to her race track for the 1st time. watching the product was like

scary thing could imagine. i had sat in my car, remember, sat my car in the car park to thinking well i'd have to do this. if i could just go home. no one f nice. fortunately. 7 or 8 of my class fans i raced with came over. so many name can be because, you know, there will be clean cart racing next year where you could see the love i felt my gesture was a really profound thing. it made a massive impact. in fact, if they hadn't done now, i wouldn't go back the next year, 2 years into the transition, charlie began attacking her modest board goals with gin you would vigor in a new found confidence. things began looking up in her career. i pans for probably the hardest part of that experience and i started to find confidence and self belief that i'd never 9 and my whole life. and i think that had

a huge impact. no, just on racing, but on so many levels on just how you think in function. i think a big part of me was kind of locked up inside. but living in denial was living in denial. it's using physical entity to suppress her. a major part of your personality, a really intrinsic part of who you are as a person. when, when you do that, you're using physical entities. it's tiring. it's mentally keegan. i went to fonts, i did it around the french, he'll climb championship. and i one by 3 seconds and i break the trust record by 2 seconds or something which in her climb turns if it's like

a lot. i mean i just why there are when it's, it's going to have experience. and i have, you want to surprise me included like where did that come from, charlie? since made yapping progress, switching to focusing and jacking up, putting in a variety of cds, she even tied up would be m w, and need history as the 1st trans competitor at the no buggering 24 finishing forth in class. but her burning ambition is to become the 1st transit thing driver at the 24 eyes of lamar. so 2017 was my last year hill climbing. and at the end of that year, the reserve within the, within the team structure, there was the opportunity to do an endurance race. in that car. i looked the calendar, i could if i had the budget, the one race and i looked and there was one word that popped out for me. the mon, november 2017 thought. wow. 3 or endurance race in approach. type out the mon. of

course, not the 24 hour course disability circuit. but nonetheless i never thought in my wildest dreams die could stand on the podium at the moment and not just not just me, but real me. and i just remember thinking, please, you know, if i can, if i can do this, i can get this fall. then that's like her. it's like a sign. it's like, and i him, it's like you've got a coin, you gotta keep going and try make this happen. and raised the 24 hours long for ill . whether i got on the podium or not another thing, in addition to her using ambitions, which includes competing in the 2022 lamborghini, so patrol fail cds. charlie is an l g, b, d, q plus activist. she uses her platform to fight for diversity and more to sport and

the word and this life. i want to help other people find the happiness that i found. and and i also want other people to understand the role they can play and facilitating more inclusive environments. where everybody can be their true authentic self. ah, i think 70 charlie pretty surprised. i think 7 year charlie was pretty happy cuz i never imagined that things would be the way they are now. so i think i feel like i've had to wait a little time, i had to quit patient at the system, but i think you can say right out as like a good time. so yeah, i think 7 year we refit be pretty happy like this. get me a big part of it is deleting possibility. yeah. if you believe something is possible

you, you give it a go, you get a 100 percent rather than talk yourself out of it. so i always said this is impossible. i can't do this. this isn't for me, so, so me flip that around and you think okay, but it is possible and i and i just prove and i can do that. well, what else can i do not ah

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