Rodrigo Alves

Alves was born on 30 July 1983 in São Paulo, Brazil to a Brazilian mother and a British father.[4] Her father, Roserval Alves, hailed from a family of Europeans who arrived in Brazil in the 1940s.[5] Initially the family was in the farming trade but expanded their business involvement to include supermarkets, shopping centres and real estate.[5] When she was young, her grandfather bought her Barbie dolls. Although Alves was assigned male at birth, from a young age—“since the age of three, four, five, six”—she considered herself to be female, played with dolls, and cross-dressed.[6][7] She feels people should not be defined by gender.[8] She was shy, and bullied throughout childhood.[9] As a teen, Alves had a hormone dysfunction, with too much estrogen causing breast tissue to grow; her other features were also picked on by the bullies.[9][7] Her family has a string of grocery stores in Brazil which has made them wealthy, but as of 2018, Alves has not made any profit relating to the stores.[10] Alves moved to London at age 18, where she studied public relations at London College of Communication.[3][4] She has money from an inheritance from her maternal grandparents