Hair scare

Jackie Williams, 40, Liverpool

Tidying up around my 11-year-old’s room, I shook out the duvet and pulled back the curtains.

Then I noticed something strange.

Piles of hair, stuck in clumps to the carpet.

Mel was non-binary, used the pronouns they/ them rather than he/him or she/her, with thick, dark hair that fell past their shoulders.

Now, though, I worried.

Was their hair falling out?

After school that day in September 2018, I asked Mel if they’d noticed.

‘I’ve been pulling it out, ’ they admitted, confessing they were being bullied at school.

‘The kids make fun of me, Mum, ’ Mel said.