---
title: "What It Feels Like for a Girl"
year: 2025
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl"
fi1m_id: "what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl"
imdb_id: "tt28131282"
tmdb_id: 286654
wikidata_id: "Q134445788"
fi1m_score: 84
critics_score: 83
critics_reviews: 8
published: "2026-09-12"
updated: "2026-09-16T01:19:56.640856+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# What It Feels Like for a Girl (2025)

Created by Paris Lees · 48m · Drama

## Identity

What It Feels Like for a Girl

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl
- **IMDb ID:** tt28131282
- **TMDB ID:** 286654
- **Wikidata ID:** Q134445788
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28131282/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/286654, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q134445788

**Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 83 from 8 reviews

*In a sentence:* A crowded nightclub offers a teenager more breathing room than an entire town

> Ellis Howard makes this unruly coming-of-age drama worth following through its most uncomfortable passages. The writing sometimes reaches for easy reassurance, but the humour, queer friendships and attention to class give it an unusual force.

## Synopsis

Byron is a teenager in a Nottinghamshire town, impatient for a life beyond it. Played by Ellis Howard, Byron becomes involved in sex work and finds a way into Nottingham’s queer club scene. New friendships offer possibilities that are hard to imagine back home.

Adapted from Paris Lees’s memoir, the series follows Byron through questions of gender, desire and belonging. Class and masculinity shape a coming of age that includes sex, drugs and the dance music of the 2000s. Calam Lynch, Hannah Walters, Laura Haddock and Michael Socha are among the cast.

## Review

*What It Feels Like for a Girl* understands the impatience of a teenager who suspects life is happening somewhere else. Byron, played by Ellis Howard, wants out of a Nottinghamshire town; Nottingham’s queer nightlife offers the prospect of something different. This adaptation of Paris Lees’s memoir is funny, troubling and absorbing, with only the more reassuring writing letting it down. It is particularly good on the way class restricts the choices that a young person is supposed to be free to make. It runs to eight episodes.

Howard is the reason to stay with it. Byron can be witty, reckless and difficult without becoming a collection of traits chosen to make a point about identity. Howard makes the desire to be noticed understandable, and gives equal weight to the teenager’s capacity for affection and for making a mess. We do not need every decision to be sensible to care about who is making it. The performance holds our attention through behaviour that a more cautious programme might have softened.

Brian Welsh directs the shifts between comedy and disturbing material without making either feel like an interruption. The queer friendships have pleasure and comic energy of their own, so their place in Byron’s life is easy to understand. The programme is clear about the appeal of sex, drugs and exploration, and also about how much can go wrong. It lets us worry about Byron while recognising why these new experiences seem worth the risk.

That becomes hardest to watch in the sex-work material. We were disturbed, because Howard keeps Byron’s youth apparent even when the character seems determined to appear in control. Writers Paris Lees, Georgia Christou and Paul Williams do not make the discomfort disappear by telling us exactly whom to blame or what lesson to take away. They let desire, money and the need for acceptance complicate Byron’s decisions, without requiring us to approve of them.

Cinematographer Kate Reid makes the queer nightlife look inviting enough to explain why Byron wants in. The surreal passages give the series scope to show how experiences feel to Byron, and they suit a character still imagining what life might become. The 2000s dance music gives the club scenes an urgency that fits Byron’s impatience. Spending time in these places matters: we need to understand the attraction if we are going to understand the choices.

The weakness is the occasional urge to make the story more reassuring than the character requires. Lees, Christou and Williams are most convincing when they allow awkwardness and contradictory feelings to remain; the more conventional stretches press too hard to make Byron’s experiences feel instructive. Howard has already made the feelings clear without that help. It is a limited complaint, but noticeable in a drama whose strongest passages trust us with difficult material.

Coming-of-age drama often makes being different look like a problem that a few good friends can solve. This series gives friendship its due without pretending that class, masculinity or uncertainty about gender can be settled so neatly. Its explicit material makes it a poor choice for a soothing evening, though the humour gives us welcome breaks from the discomfort. Watch it when there is time afterwards to talk about Byron.

*Fi1m score 84, published 12 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews are uniformly positive, and the praise lands in the same two places. Nearly every critic singles out Ellis Howard’s lead performance as Byron, for carrying a teenager who is witty, reckless and still forming without softening any of it. The other constant is nerve: most critics describe the adaptation of Paris Lees’s memoir as fearless, unsentimental about sex work and drugs, and unwilling to treat a trans coming-of-age story as a catalogue of trauma. The recreation of Nottingham’s early-2000s club scene draws repeated approval.

The spread is narrow, from good to outstanding, with no mixed or negative notices. Where reservations surface they concern the ending, which The Guardian finds conventional and The Telegraph calls somewhat trite after all that raw energy. Several critics flag the explicit and disturbing material as a warning rather than a fault. The Times and The Telegraph are the coolest voices, and even they call it gripping.

## Straight answers

**Is What It Feels Like for a Girl worth watching?**

*What It Feels Like for a Girl* is worth watching for anyone who can take a coming-of-age drama that includes sex work, drugs and some disturbing passages, and we scored it 84. Ellis Howard's performance as Byron is the reason to stay with it through eight episodes. The writing occasionally reaches for reassurance the character does not need, and it is a poor choice for a soothing evening.

**How long is What It Feels Like for a Girl, and what is it rated?**

*What It Feels Like for a Girl* has episodes of about 48m. It is a drama series.

**Where can I watch What It Feels Like for a Girl in the US?**

*What It Feels Like for a Girl* is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in the US. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How does What It Feels Like for a Girl compare to Beautiful Thing?**

*What It Feels Like for a Girl* is the rougher and more troubling of the two, following a teenager into sex work and Nottingham's queer club scene, where [*Beautiful Thing*](https://film.one/film/beautiful-thing) is a gentler teenage romance. Both are funny and both are alert to how class hems young queer lives in. Choose the series if you want difficult material handled without easy lessons, and the film for warmth and a shorter evening.

### Reviews we read (8)

- **Evening Standard**, India Block (90/100, inferred): This fearless and compelling TV adaptation of Paris Lees’s memoir shines thanks to Ellis Howard’s performance, with surreal and thrilling sequences amid sex, drugs and 2000s dance music. It doesn’t gloss over the messy, harrowing bits of teenage transgression and identity. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-review-paris-lees-bbc-three-ellis-howard-b1230552.html)
- **The Guardian**, Rachel Aroesti (90/100, inferred): The series is an extraordinary, deeply disturbing and fearless adaptation of Paris Lees’ memoir about a wild, witty teen’s chaotic coming-of-age involving sex work and queer friendships. It delivers a resolutely unsentimental tale of moral ambiguity and transition, rewarding viewers with a complex psychological portrait despite some conventional elements at the end. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jun/03/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-review-deeply-disturbing-and-totally-fearless-tv)
- **The i Paper**, Emily Baker (85/100, inferred): The fictionalisation of Paris Lees's memoir is a joyous examination of class, masculinity and gender identity. The critic highlights the strongly realised central character Byron and the series' timely mix of humour, darkness and celebration of identity in a working-class context. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-review-3726442)
- **Radio Times**, Jack Seale (75/100, inferred): In this coming-of-age tale based on a memoir by Paris Lees, Byron is stuck in a boring Nottinghamshire town dreaming of a different life; a dalliance with sex work leads to Nottingham’s queer underground and a gang of outsiders offering new possibilities. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/programme/b-tqvc08/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl/)
- **The Telegraph** (70/100, inferred): The BBC Three adaptation is an addictive, shocking and gripping coming-of-age drama with raw, bawdy energy and a magnetic central performance. It features lewd and explicit scenes but ultimately feels like a real-life fairytale, though the happy ending is somewhat trite. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2025/06/05/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-bbc-iplayer-review/)
- **The Times** (70/100, inferred): This BBC3 series is a raw, funny, fearless, heartbreaking and occasionally disturbing coming-of-age drama that is well acted and not just another YA story. It stands out despite surrounding controversy over its subject matter and title. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-review-a-raw-and-funny-coming-of-age-drama-l205jnf5n)
- **Digital Spy**, David Opie (5/5): The critic calls it the most important LGBTQ+ series since It's a Sin, praising its smart, well-rounded portrayal of trans joy, love and acceptance amid noughties challenges rather than focusing solely on trauma. They single out the phenomenal cast led by Ellis Howard's extraordinary performance and the authentic recreation of queer nightlife. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a64872696/what-it-feels-like-for-girl-review-bbc/)
- **NME**, Nick Levine (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the series one of 2025's best new shows, praising its raw, raucous coming-of-age story adapted from Paris Lees' memoir and its vivid capture of Nottingham's early-2000s club scene. They single out Ellis Howard's lead performance for conveying Byron's evolving identity and complex teenage personality with tenderness, empathy, and humor. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/tv-reviews/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-review-paris-lees-ellis-howard-3867283)

## Details

- **Created by:** Paris Lees
- **Creator:** Paris Lees
- **Director:** Brian Welsh
- **Writer:** Paul Williams, Paris Lees, Georgia Christou
- **Cinematography:** Kate Reid
- **Producer:** Frances du Pille
- **Cast:** Calam Lynch as Max; Ellis Howard as Byron; Hannah Walters as Mommar Joe; Laura Haddock as Lisa; Michael Socha as Steve; Laquarn Lewis as Lady Die; Hannah Jones as Sasha; Adam Ali as Dirty Damian
- **Runtime:** 48m
- **Release (the US):** 3 June 2025
- **Genres:** Drama
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQYATRlTKJ4

## Where to watch in the US

- Amazon Prime Video: streaming

*Checked 2026-09-12.*

Also available in: CA, GB, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Beautiful Thing* (1996), Fi1m 80: A tender, funny account of queer adolescence hemmed in by class. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/beautiful-thing.md)
- *Show Me Love* (1998): Small-town boredom and teenage desire, with room for awkwardness and bad decisions.
- *Tomboy* (2011): A child’s experiments with gender receive close attention without an accompanying lecture.
- *We Are Who We Are* (2020): Teenage gender, desire and friendship unfold with patience and an appetite for mess.
- *A Fantastic Woman* (2017): An adult struggle for dignity offers a sterner companion to Byron’s search.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl