'When you feel like you’re a girl living in a boy’s body and you try to change you want that validation that you look like a girl. I viewed her as a very strong woman, everybody wanted to date her.

Kara, pictured aged 18, underwent a grueling 14-hour gender alignment procedure in 2002

Kara, pictured right, says she has always wanted to look more like her heroine Britney, left

Kara says she sought inspiration for her new look from a number of pop stars but focused most of her attention on attempting to emulate Britney Spears

'I focused on Britney and Christina Aguilera for my inspiration: they were the stars that were around when I was younger, they are who you looked up to.

'Nowadays people have Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.

'I was just thinking, I want to be a girl now, who do I emulate?'

And it is not merely just in looks that the 26-year-old takes after her idol, as she even claims to have had a mental breakdown around the same time as Britney - shaving off her head to join her beloved heroine.

Kara says as well as looking like Britney, she also had a breakdown at the same time as her heroine and shaved her hair

Kara says she felt 'liberated' after making the 'bold statement' of shaving off her hair

Kara, who used to go by the name of Kody when she was a boy, pictured aged 12, right, and 13, left

Kara said: 'I was in a really bad mood one day and just went into the salon and told them to take my extensions out.

'I thought if Britney has the strength to do it then I do too.

'People told me it was such a bold statement, I felt so liberated.

'I’ve never felt good enough and I tried to do anything to make myself ugly, this was one of those things.'

The 26-year-old has forked out a fortune on achieving what she calls the perfect look

Kara, pictured left with her father, and in a High School photograph, right, always dreamed of looking more like Britney

The 26-year-old says her new appearance, which has turned her into a lookalike of the pop singer who shot to fame with her debut album '...Baby One More Time' in 1999, has finally brought her happiness following years of anguish.

After shocking classmates by turning up at a Halloween dance, aged just 12, dressed in a red vinyl body suit in homage to Britney's costume in her 'Oops I did it again' video - he caused uproar in the Bible-belt town in Ohio, US, where he grew up.

But at the age of 15, his parents allowed him to see a doctor and he was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 1999 and began taking female hormones.

Over the next few years, he sprouted breasts, began to freely dress as a woman and changed his name to Kara.

Kara, pictured right, has spent a fortunate attempting to mirror the changing looks of her heroine, left

Kara said she had never felt good enough before achieving her dream look

In 2002, Kara then underwent a gruelling 14 hour gender reassignment surgery and breast implant surgery, and has so far spent around £60,000 dying her hair blonde and modelling herself on her idea of perfection.

The aspiring actress said: 'Once I changed, I went through school perfectly normally, I had to adhere to the rules and dress code like everyone else.

'I felt like I was put under a microscope though. I felt like I couldn’t have any form of scandalous situation because I was already a scandal in itself.

'It was almost like I went through puberty twice.'

Kara began experimenting with drink and drugs once she had graduated high school, and moved to Los Angeles in an attempt to pursue a career in acting.

She began being mistaken as Britney and was even referred to as the mega star by members of the paparazzi, something she claims was 'incredibly validating'.

Kara later moved to New York to attend the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts for a year, graduating last year before starting on a degree in public relations.