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I'm Elise Hugh.

Nicole Mainz identified as a girl since early childhood,

but schoolmates didn't want to acknowledge this.

In sharing her painful personal story at TEDx SMCC in 2016,

the actress and transgender rights activist sheds light on the challenges of finding

acceptance and safety in a society that, especially in some places, has yet to come around.

For as long as I can remember, I've always recognized myself as a girl.

I hung out with all of the other girls. I talked like the other girls, and I had eyes

only for makeup, Barbies, and girls' toys, all of which could be found in the pink aisle at Toys

Our Us. Before my hair had grown long, I would wear my favorite red turtleneck around my head

like Ariel's long flowing hair, and every Halloween I would tell

my parents I wanted to be a girl, a witch one year, and a princess the next year. And of course,

another princess the following year, but, you know, Disney. The point is, I was clearly a girl,

but the one thing that I couldn't beg my parents into getting for me was actual

girlhood. Now, if you haven't figured it out already, I am transgender, but don't worry, I'm not

here to raid your bathrooms and take your women. I'm here to tell you what it's like to be trans,

what it's like to struggle every day with acceptance from yourself

and those around you. And of course, that inevitable question of which bathroom do we put this kid in.

I was born in upstate New York with an identical twin brother 10 minutes behind me, a mother who

always did her best to make sure I was happy,

and a father whose expectations for a son I did not exactly meet. He expected that my brother and I,

...