taste of what life is like for his idol.
For Blake the recognition provides him with hope and a lightness that has been missing from his life - for the teenager was actually born a girl named Rebecca.
His decision to switch gender and live his life as a boy has seen him on and off the police protection list for five years due to a campaign of abuse that has seen him beaten unconscious and his house pelted with rocks, snowballs and metal poles. He has even attempted to kill himself in a bid to escape his tormentors.
But Blake said yesterday he finds comfort in impersonating Bieber, 20, and that the Canadian pop star’s music has given him the confidence to be himself.
It is believed Blake is Britain’s first transgender Bieber look-a-like.
A person is transgender if they believe the body they were born with does not match how they feel as an individual. Blake said he has known he was a boy from a very young age and has now decided to undergo surgery and hormone treatment to change his body from that of a girl to that of a boy.
He said: ‘I was born a boy but my body reflects differently because I’ve not had the op yet. I knew at quite a young age because I was always copying my brother and doing what he was doing and I just didn’t feel right.’
His mother Sharon, 52, also noticed early on that something didn’t seem right. She said: ‘I knew there was something because I would try and dress him up, not thinking and doing his hair with girly things.
He would say I don’t like this and I would tell him it looks good and he would go along with it but he was never really happy. I knew there was something but I could never put my finger on it. Even then he would come home and take the girl clothes off and put on football, Manchester United, stuff.’
After coming across Bieber on YouTube when he was 12, Blake, who lives with Sharon and his older brother Bradley in Wigan, said he felt an immediate connection with the singer and his lyrics.
He picked out the song Believe as summing up how Bieber inspires him, highlighting the words ‘It didn’t matter how many times I got knocked on the floor’ because: ‘I’ve had physical abuse and hate but Justin’s words bring me back up again’.
When Blake cut his hair short into the singer’s style, his mother, Sharon, pointed out the physical resemblance between the pair and he began considering the idea of working as a lookalike.
He has since worked hard perfecting the likeness, closely studying music videos and interviews to memorise Bieber’s mannerisms and spending hundreds of pounds on clothing, sometimes spending days trawling the internet to find versions of the singer’s outfits at affordable prices.
However, the work has paid off and he is often mistaken for the real Bieber. He said: ‘I’ve had my shades on and my hat backwards and I went into Blackpool and a small girl came up and her mum asked if she could have her picture taken with me because she thought I really was Justin Bieber. And, when I went to Birmingham, these girls on the escalators were going crazy because they thought I was him.’
Blake has spent hours impersonating the star to copy his mannerisms and said he now gets mistaken for him
He was born Rebecca but realised he was transgender and changed his name by deed poll at the age of 16
However, these highlights are far from the usual reaction and Blake has endured years’ of abuse from people who won’t accept him. Sharon has been forced to ring the police ‘hundreds of times’ because of different incidents.
He has been forced to change school twice because of bullying and was once beaten unconscious by a girl who thought Blake was attracted to her. While he was left in need of medical attention she was only suspended for one day.
On other occasions his house has been pelted with rocks, snowballs and even a metal pole that cracked the front window while Blake was sitting just inside.
And while both Sharon, who is a full time carer to her mother who is recovering from breast cancer, and his brother Bradley, 19, are both accepting of Blake’s identity, other members of his family have been less supportive.
Blake is due to start gender re-assignment surgery and is believed to be the first transgender Bieber lookalike
Blake says impersonating Bieber has helped him dealing with the bullying and abuse he has suffered
The teenager, pictured as Rebecca at five months old at his christening (left) and at 10 (right) came out as transgender at 16 and has passed the psychological tests and will start taking testosterone before surgery
He said: ‘It’s been terrible with my dad, he used to call me by my own name and not Blake and he’s not got me anything for my birthday or Christmas. We don’t see each other any more, he’s got a new girlfriend. He’s asked my mum why I don’t dress more girly and told her it’s embarrassing to be seen out with me.’
He has not seen his father, council worker Nigel, for nearly two years.
Blake, who came out as transgender at 16 and changed his name by deed poll, said this repeated rejection led to an attempt to take his own life.
Already self-harming, four years ago he went further, huddling in the corner clutching a knife saying he did not want to live anymore. Sharon had to call the police as she did not know how to talk him down.
Blake has been asked for his autograph and to pose for photos in Birmingham after being mistaken for Bieber
He spends hours copying the child star's moves and trawling the internet to buy similar clothes and shoes
However, he said turning to Bieber has helped him work through some of these issues, to the point where he is now able to give advice to others who are struggling with their own sexuality.
He said: ‘Now I help people. There’s a group online where people can post online about when they start their operations or when they start [taking testosterone] or recent pictures before and after and I know quite a few people who are going through it.
'Some people come to me asking how they should come out to someone. It feels good to help others.’
His mother added: ‘They are saying he’s an inspiration. There was a boy whose little sister was sick, she was only three and dying from cancer, and he asked if Blake would take a picture of himself looking like Justin and put her name on and he said “thank you so much, it meant everything.”’
Blake is currently in the process of gender re-assignment and plans to get tattoos to complete the likeness
Currently studying public services at college, Blake hoped to join either the army or the fire service before deciding to try and make a career as a lookalike. These are professions he will go back to if he impersonating Bieber doesn’t go to plan. His current aim is to land jobs either modelling as Bieber or performing at children’s parties.
Having passed the psychological evaluation necessary before undergoing gender reassignment surgery, he is now scheduled to begin taking testosterone before eventually having the full procedure.
He hopes these next steps will help him look more masculine and therefore more like Bieber and plans to get tattoos and build muscle at the gym to make himself more like the star.
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