AN 11-year-old dreaming of becoming a fashion designer has been hand-picked to appear on a new CBBC show tackling gender stereotypes and aiming to prove “you can dress how you want”.

Andre Everington-Giles, 11, from Leigh, says he has been “dressing differently” from a young age and loves styling his hair long and designing and wearing his own dresses.

The Leigh North Street School pupil admits his outfit choices have always made him “stick out in the community” but he has no plans in stopping.

Now, he has been selected out of thousands of applicants to appear on new CBBC show Style It Out, where he is competing to create stylish and innovative outfits from pre-loved and discarded clothes.

The winner of the series will get a chance to put on a show at the prestigious London Fashion Week.

Andre said: “I’ve been making clothes from when I was three, I have always loved clothes and I love wearing makeup and nails. This entire experience has been so crazy and fun. Every time we went on, we would have a theme, we would design and then go into the closets, pick a bunch of pre-loved clothes, and make them into this wonderful piece of art.

“It’s really showed me the filming industry and what goes into making these shows, the creativity too. I want to stay doing fashion and music also, but I really want to work for the police at the moment, which is quite different isn’t it?”

Andre added that “all my friends have been supportive, teachers have been amazing, and my year six teachers watched the first episode.”

Andre’s mum, Shanta Everington, 51, said; “It’s been amazing for his confidence, at the school. They showed the trailer and everyone rooted for him.

“It is great to have that acceptance because he is quite different, some of the staff were saying amazing things about how he is unapologetically himself.

“One of the judges said it took him twenty years to learn self-acceptance, it was about showing how you can dress how you want.

“Andre said that if a girl walks down the road dressed like he does, no one cares. He is trying to normalise it, that is his motivation.”

Style it available on BBC Iplayer and Andre is set to appear on TV in episode 5 on Thursday, January 18.