Erica Maison is the mother of five children in Detroit. One of her daughters is a transgender girl named Corey.

Erica told BuzzFeed News that Corey was always feminine, even from the time she was very young. “She loved to dress in high heels and dresses. In public she wore boy clothes — I just assumed she might be gay.”

When Corey was in the fifth grade she was bullied so badly her mother made the decision to pull her out of public school and begin homeschooling. It wasn’t until Corey was 11 years old that the mother-daughter duo came across a video of transgender YouTuber Jazz Jennings and everything suddenly clicked. “She said, ‘Mom, I’m just like her, I AM a girl.’

Once she was at home and free to be herself, Corey started gaining confidence and began dressing like a girl in public — which wasn’t always easy.

Her hair was still very short, and she still looked like a boy. People would give her dirty looks, and take pictures of her with their cell phone cameras. They would laugh, and point, and stare. I told Corey, ‘Every time someone points their phone at you to take a picture, you turn and smile and strike a pose!’ That really boosted her self-esteem. I wanted to teach her to turn anything negative into something positive.

--Erica Maison

Erica began the search for a therapist that specialized in transgender children to help the family through the process of Corey’s transition. Eventually she was directed to the gender clinic at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, which was five hours away from their home.

At that appointment our lives were changed forever.

--Erica

A few months later Corey had the puberty-suppression drug Supprelin surgically implanted. At that time it was determined that Corey would be ready to start hormone therapy in August 2015, at the age of 14.

All we had to do was wait for the therapist to send over the ‘readiness’ letter to Chicago. We waited, and waited, and waited.

--Erica

The pharmacy finally called on September 24.

It was so surreal. I was shaking and crying the entire trip to the pharmacy. I was trying to think of the best way to tell her that the day she had been waiting two and a half years for was finally here.

--Erica

This is what she did:

I think one of the biggest issues with our society today is that people just don’t understand what being transgender actually means. I want people to watch this video, and see the raw emotion of a transgender child that can finally live her life the way she feels inside. I want people to see this, because maybe it will open their eyes. Open their eyes to anyone who’s different. Maybe make them realize that people who are transgender are people just like them, but also people that are at much higher risk for violence and ridicule, over something they had no choice in. I promise you that no child wants to be made fun of, no child ever wants to be hurt, or picked on. No child would ever choose to be transgender, it is 100% how they are born.

We all just want to be loved and accepted by others, and that is all I want for my daughter, to be loved and accepted for who she is inside.

--Erica Maison