| Kim Petras | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 August 1992 [1] Cologne, Germany[2] |
| Ethnicity | German |
| Height | 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)[1] |
| Website | |
| http://kimpetrasonline.com/ | |
Kim Petras (born 27 August 1992, Cologne, Germany) is a German teen pop singer. She creates electronic dance pop music and is signed to independent record label Joyce Records. She has been the subject of extensive worldwide news media reporting regarding her transgender medical history in the context of her young age.
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Kim Petras was born on 27 August 1992 [1] as Tim Petras. Her parents, Lutz and Konni, have said that from the age of two, she began insisting she was a girl. It slowly became apparent this was "not just a phase"[3] and so her parents tried to be supportive but made her wear gender neutral clothes in public.[4] Eventually her parents sought professional help but struggled to find people who were knowledgeable on the subject. In time they found Dr. Bernd Meyenburg at Frankfurt University who was head of a clinic for children and had studied transsexuality since the 1970s.[3]
In 2007, Petras recorded a few home videos of herself singing, and uploaded them onto the internet. Her videos, which included some of her own compositions, were seen by German music producer Fabian Görg. He subsequently signed her to his independent record label, Joyce Records.[1]
In 2008 she released two more of her compositions, this time produced by Görg. The first, "Last Forever", was released online and became popular on YouTube and MySpace.[5] A few months later in September 2008, she released her first commercially available CD single, "Fade Away", into the German market.[6] The title track from the single was also made available for download worldwide via a number of online electronic music retailers.
Joyce Records has announced plans to release a debut album for which Petras is currently working on new songs.[7]
On 17 April 2009 the previously free promotional track "Last Forever" was made available on iTunes Germany.
| Year | Information |
|---|---|
| 2011 | One Piece Of Tape
|
| Year | Information |
|---|---|
| 2009 | Boomerang
|
Die For You
|
|
Last Forever
|
|
| 2008 | Fade Away
|
In 2006, Petras, then aged 13, made her first significant media appearance in a story on Stern TV, a German television current affairs show.[4][8] In it, she described her "gender transition" and the medical treatment she received at the Endokrinologikum (endocrinology center) in Hamburg by Dr. Achim Wüsthof. However, it wasn't until the following year, aged 14, that Petras gained worldwide attention from the news media. This came about after she appeared in a German television documentary[9] and a talk show[10] in a push to get permission for early gender reassignment surgery at age 16. According to German law, a person must normally be at least 18 to be allowed to undergo this kind of surgery.
The publicity generated from the 2007 TV appearances resulted in many news articles about her gender transition at age 12 and describing her as the "world's youngest transsexual". This assertion, however, is inaccurate, as gender identity disorder is often diagnosed in early childhood and transition by children under 12, though uncommon, is not unknown. However, Petras may have been one of the youngest people at that time to receive female hormone treatments.[3][11][12]
In September 2007 she was a model for a nationwide chain of German hair salons.[13]
Petras turned 16 in 2008, and announced in a November 2008 post on her blog that she had recently completed her gender reassignment surgery.[14] The story hit the news media on 4 February 2009 [15] and appeared in newspapers worldwide, even making the front page of some. A common theme of these articles is that Petras may be the youngest person in the world to have had gender reassignment surgery[16]
Petras is very adamant that her gender has always been female. In an interview about her surgery she stated "I was asked if I feel like a woman now - but the truth is I have always felt like a woman - I just ended up in the wrong body".[16]