Sarah Saint James

Harbouring huge ambitions yet feeling suffocated by the small town mentality of those around her, Sarah Saint James was always made to feel like she was different. Sarah was raised in commission housing in Salisbury East, South Australia, but through perseverance her hard-working single mum eventually could afford to buy their own home and sent Sarah to a private Christian school in the town of Gawler, bordering outer Adelaide and the Barossa Valley.

Being an only child, a vivacious Sarah would make up dance routines and sing into the TV remote, imagining herself as the star of the music videos she memorised. Dreaming of playing her own music in front of crowds, she would practice her autograph in the shower on the steamy glass doors. Sarah always knew who she was and what she wanted to be, and with this sense of self she came out to her mum as bisexual at the age of 11 – but her mum believed it was ‘just a phase’, and the most popular clique at school pushed her to the outskirts because she identified as queer and didn’t wear a size 8.