Arguably the most prominent trans writer in the country, Lees graduated in 2009 with BA(Hons) English Language and Literature, and was then awarded an honorary doctorate by the university in 2016 for making a major contribution to transgender identity in contemporary society through her work as a journalist and social commentator.
Described as "the voice of a generation" by i-D magazine, Lees has been a regular contributor to national newspapers, and the first trans columnist at Vogue. She was the first openly trans person to appear on the BBC's Question Time programme, as well as the first to present for Radio One and Channel 4. She co-founded in 2011, a project to connect trans people with the media that led to the BBC2 comedy Boy Meets Girl and Eastenders’ first trans character.
Published by Penguin Random House, Lees' memoir has drawn instant acclaim for its powerful vernacular-language exploration of her earlier life as a boy called Byron, struggling with their identity in a dead-end East Midlands town two decades ago.
Speaking on her publisher's website, Lees said that she wanted What it Feels Like for a Girl to be "an antidote to all of this f*cking boring, middle-class discussion about identity... I still don't know why I'm the way I am today, all I know is that I am, a fact in and of myself. I exist.... Writing it was like going back and reclaiming it, and saying: 'I was there, I was taking notes'."