AMY FRANKLIN spent years of her life afraid to wear the clothes she wanted to wear, scared of the world's perception of a woman in masculine clothes.

But as she got older, she became more comfortable in her own skin - and clothes. So much so, a local brand noticed and asked the West Coast forward to model for them. So much so, Franklin is now trying to help others who felt the same way she did.

Having established a style that was true to her own androgynous look, Franklin decided that TikTok was a platform that would allow her to help others realise that fashion doesn’t have to conform to gender.

The hope was that she could help other young people caught in the purgatory of what was ‘normal’ and what made them feel comfortable in their own skin, but there has been a pleasing side-effect.

“It’s weird. I was trying to do it in a way to help other people, but in the process of really umm-ing and ahh-ing about it, I thought ‘Wow, this is actually helping myself just as much as I want to help others’ in terms of confidence and things like that,” Franklin told AFL.com.au.
 
“I just never liked what I’d wear in high school. You kind of drift, you find your friends, all of my friends were girls, and so then I went through this period where I’d wear my hair out, I would do all these things that I thought would make me happy. And for a while you don’t even realise, and I wouldn’t have realised at all, that while I was doing that, I wasn’t being me, and I didn’t feel like myself.”
 
Franklin is a self-described over-thinker, always worried about external perception. It’s why social media hasn’t necessarily been her jam until recently. But with a footy contract and regular games for a club with increasing eyes on its AFLW program comes attention.

Now, instead of shying away from that attention, she's establishing how to make the most of it in her own way.
 
There is a genuine passion and enthusiasm that creeps into her voice when talking about leaning into her style, almost as if she has finally found herself after years of desperate searching.
 
“You can get so scared of everyone else’s thoughts, but I love doing what I’m doing and wearing what I’m wearing, so why should I care about what anyone else thinks?” Franklin explained.
 
“For me personally, it’s more about what I thought other people would think of me, and a lot of that would stop me from doing things that I wanted to do. And even with being openly gay now, it’s just one of those things where you feel like you had to hide it and pretend. But you just get sick and tired of it.
 
“I guess it’s so simple, but life is so short to be thinking and worrying about what other people thing to then stop you from doing what you want to do.”

 Even if it is something as simple as sharing outfits on TikTok.
 
An opportunity that came out of the blue last year was a real kickstarter in Franklin’s confident turn. Already a fan of fashion and treading around the edges of her now-signature style, local Perth clothing label Oli got in touch.
 
“They just reached out to me and said ‘Hey, we think that you’d be great to do modelling’ and this is where the whole thing sparked, because it honestly shocked me that they would want someone who’s a masculine woman to wear their clothes and then post it,” Franklin said.
 
“In my head, when you see models it’s always the very masculine man wearing the men’s clothes, and this very feminine-looking woman wearing the clothes. So, whenever I used to look online for shopping and things like that, I’d struggle to imagine what I would look like in it, because of the models in a way.
 
“I would think ‘Oh, maybe that wouldn’t look good on me, because I can’t really picture it’.”

She hopes to offer a “happy medium” for people to reference when on the hunt for their own style. Franklin’s look is one that sits in an androgynous area, with plenty of pleated shorts, oversized tees, and basics from Uniqlo.
 
“You can literally look however you want, and still look so cool in clothes, which I just love, and people being so confident in it just makes me happy,” Franklin said.
 
While she admits that the bulk of reactions to her posts so far are friends pumping her up (“which I will never complain about”), here and there the impact is seeping through to those she doesn’t know.
 
These are the people that she is most excited to be reaching.
 
“The whole bit of it is just to be a bit more authentic to yourself, because I definitely have spent a lot of time trying to be someone that I’m not,” Franklin said.
 
“You don’t ever really think ‘Oh, does everyone feel the same?’… Even when it comes to the (Best and Fairest) night at West Coast and all of that, I remember, it must have been the end of 2023 and I used to say to myself ‘No, I never want to wear a suit’ because you’re just so scared to admit that to yourself.
 
“I went to the 2023 end of season, and I wore a dress, and I hated every moment of it. It just did not feel like me whatsoever. That was actually the last time I’ve ever worn a dress.”

Now, as things build, Franklin is doing what she can to improve her social presence, enrolling in programs to learn and spending plenty of time working through the trial-and-error stage of a new venture.
 
There is one thing, however, that she has her eyes on.
 
Collingwood’s Patrick Lipinski has been a “massive inspiration” to Franklin, with his online presence leaning heavily into his interest in fashion. Lipinski has been collaborating with Melbourne label Push Pull, a brand she loves, and the idea of modelling for them is a bucket list item.
 
“I’d literally die if that ever happened, but I wouldn’t even know what to do with myself,” Franklin laughed.

This enthusiasm and excitement funnels back to footy, too, with preseason officially kicking off in a fortnight.
 
“The saying of ‘Don’t make footy your life’ is so true. Because footy is not your life, and for you to thrive in footy, you have to have something that you’re passionate about outside the four walls at the footy club,” Franklin said.
 
“And I think I got caught in it for so long, I’ve just been like ‘No, you need to really crack into footy’ and everything’s about footy, and your whole life around it. It’s so not, it’s also having other things that you’re passionate about outside. You just work so much better inside at the footy club because you’re doing other things that make you happy, and you’re motivated to push yourself more.
 
“I have never been so passionate about something outside footy ever, and that’s what makes me so happy.”