Natalie Kitroeff

In Tennessee, they were doing the thing all parents do, trying to get to know their kids as they turn from who they might be to who they are.

But with their third child, that was harder.

They've asked us to call her Allie.

Allie had been born a biological boy, and from the start, she felt different from their other children, harder to reach.

I think she was the one child.

I always felt like that I didn't know her.

What do you mean by that?

That you didn't know her?

I don't... It's just sometimes you think about your kids and you're like, oh, I know what this woman would want.

Like, silly things like birthday gifts or like, I know what they would think about this show or I know... I wonder what they would say if I asked them, you know, what they wanted to do with their life.

And...

She was just a little out of grasp of being able to nail down who she was.

And not in a bad way, but just a yearning as a parent.

I just mentally remember thinking, I need to get to know her more.

From early on, Allie seemed to her parents an effeminate boy.

She loved all things purple and used to dress up in her sister's ballet outfits.

Once, when her dad kicked her a soccer ball, she performed a plie.

But she was still a little kid, and her parents didn't really know what to make of it all, if anything.

I mean, I don't think we were equipped to know what we were experiencing.

So I think very early on,