NY: The first picture of the transsexual beauty queen who made international headlines after her dismissal and subsequent reinstatement from Miss Universe Canada has emerged - and she's a 13-year-old boy called Walter.
Pictured with a blonde bob as a Grade eight student at Vancouver's Killarney secondary school, Jenna Talackova, 23, was then known as Walter Page Talackova.
According to the Daily Mail report, Jenna, who learned this week she is now eligible to compete in the Miss Universe Canada pageant after orIginally being thrown out last month for being born a boy, made international headlines after it was revealed she lied about her natural gender on her application form.
Ms Talackova talked about the saga in an exclusive interview with ABC journalist Barbara Walters.
She told how her mother still called her Walter.
But classmates recalled how Jenna's looks and behaviour sparked intrigue about her gender at the time even then. With a slender frame and effeminate mannerisms, she stuck out.
'It was very obvious,' Teruko Walker told The Vancouver Sun, recalling her looks and behaviour when she was in her early teens.
'It wasn't like she looked like a boy, but acted like a girl. She very much looked like a female,' said Walker, who was in Grade 11 at the high school at the time.
Ms Talackova was thrown out of the pageant, owned by billionaire Donald Trump, after organisers learned she had undergone surgery to become a woman.
She has been a veteran beauty pageant competitor since undergoing sexual reassignment surgery at the age of 19 and has competed in a Miss Universe competition before.
Ms Talackova's story sparked outrage on social networking sites including Twitter after people claimed the organisation was being discriminatory.
More than 20,000 people signed a virtual petition on Change.org demanding that she be re-instated.
She had already reached the finals of the Miss Vancouver pageant before officials stepped in and banned her from the competition.
The only requirement stated on the Miss Universe Canada website is that to enter, women must be a Canadian citizen and between the ages of 18 and 27.
The application form makes no mention of rules regarding sexual reassignment surgery.
Ms Talackova's case was taken on by celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred who is famous for representing clients including a string of Tiger Woods' ex-lovers and Nicole Brown Simpson's family during the O.J. Simpsopn trial.
In a YouTube video interview, Ms Talackova said she knew she was a female at the age of four and began hormone therapy ten years later.
'I regard myself as a woman with a history,' Ms Talackova says, winking to the camera.
Ms Talackova's family, who live in east Vancouver and the Northern British Columbia, have supported her throughout her transition.
Vancouver-born Talackova made it to the final with 64 other contestants before learning of the organisation's U-turn last Friday.
But she has another shot at being crowned winner of the contest, which will be announced on May 19 in Toronto next month. She could then go on and represent Canada in the international Miss Universe Pageant later this year.
Mr Trump overturned the decision to dismiss the Canadian after a wave of publicity surrounding the move.
Ms Allred claimed this week that questions should be posed to Mr Trump's organisation about the rule rather than focusing on Ms Talackova's gender, pointing to the letter 'F' for female on her passport.
