Since Nicki Kuhnhausen was very young, most of the people in her life had accepted her transgender identity.

Ever since Nicki was able to talk, she told anyone who would listen that she wasn't a boy.

She was a little girl. In her family's photo

albums there were pictures of Nicky dressed in girls clothes, wearing a pink cast

after she broke her arm and smiling in a blonde wig that she had borrowed from the babysitter who was looking after her.

According to her mother, Lisa Woods, Nicky never struggled with her gender identity.

She just knew.

For Nicky's family and friends, there was never any

doubt in their minds that Nicky was a girl born in a boy's body. When she told

them that she didn't like her birth name, they agreed to call her Nicky instead.

She was supported while she figured out who she was, and as she got older, her belief that

she was a girl only got stronger.

In sixth grade, Nicky told her mother that she wanted to

publicly come out as transgender. Up until then, she had only been open about

her identity with the people closest to her. Now she wanted the world to know. In her teenage years,

Nicky was just like any other teenage girl growing up in Vancouver, Washington. She loved pop culture,

kept up with hair and makeup trends, and had a close circle of friends who she spent most of her spare time with.

More than anything else, Nicky was passionate about makeup.

She regularly received compliments at school for new makeup

technique she had tried out and when she got older she wanted to work as a celebrity makeup

artist. At school she was known as being a kind caring person.

According to Lisa, the only time Nicky was ever in trouble at school was when she was sticking up for another kid who got bullied.

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