Welcome to St Hell author and trans activist Lewis Hancox from Southsea is shortlisted for a LGBT National Diversity Award

Lewis, now living in Southsea, is one of eight shortlisted for the award from more than 72,000 nominations and votes.

The awards ceremony is being held in Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral on September 16 – which is near Lewis’s home town of St Helen’s.

Lewis is the author of the ground-breaking young adult (YA) g raphic memoir about growing up a trans teen, Welcome to St Hell.

As well as being an inspirational voice, having appeared in TV programmes and creating original content documenting his experiences as a trans man, he has earned a huge online following thanks to his viral comedy videos. Entertaining people, while incidentally educating, is an important theme in his work.

He has amassed more than 300,000 followers on TikTok (with 5.3m likes), 27,000 followers on Instagram, 15,000 followers on Twitter and more than 35,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Welcome to St Hell takes readers on an hilarious, heart-breaking and ultimately healing path as he overcomes trauma, confusion and dubious fashion choices to become the man he was always meant to be. And it aims to resonate not just with trans teens, but with every young person who has ever felt the awkward sting of finding their identity in adolescence.

Lewis says: Growing up in a small northern town in the early 2000s, I couldn't see myself reflected in any media. There was no trans representation and very little LGBT awareness in general. That's why it's such a huge honour to be nominated for the Positive LGBT Role Model award with the National Diversity Awards!

‘To think I could be that hope for others means so much to me. I pride myself on educating in a relaxed way, through humour and relatability. Across all my work, my message is that we all have a lot more in common than we realise, we're all human and we're all on our own journeys. Thank you so much to the National Diversity Awards for allowing me to spread this message further.’

The book, published by Scholastic Children’s Books had a local book launch party at Pigeon Books, in Albert Road, Southsea.

Find out more about the awards at nationaldiversityawards.co.uk.