“It wasn’t a decision; it was a realization of who I am. I was four when I first asked to get a dress. I asked my mom a few times, and eventually she…most of the time she just said ‘yes we can,’ but we didn’t actually do it. But one time I asked and she did say we could so we went to Goodwill and we found three dresses, one of which my sister has now. I outgrew it…by a lot.

So when we got home I immediately put one of them on, and there was a babysitter that night, and before my mom knew it we had gone to the park, and I was still wearing the dress. But I was sort of gender variant for a while, like that’s what I thought I was, until about third grade.

I told the class that I had transitioned from Ian Alexi to Zoe Ian Alexandra Alexi. So that went great. Everybody was totally fine with it. About the middle of the school year we went to officially change my name. I missed some school, and that was exciting.

But it was sort of gradual…Bit by bit [from the time I was four] until about third grade, I just gradually started wearing more [girl] stuff, and by third grade I had long hair and I was wearing completely girl clothes. It was gradual.”