By Erin AliceVahliaire

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In the early hours of January seventh, 1999, a young woman gave birth to a baby boy. She was elated, but what she dud not know was that her baby boy was destined to die. He would sacrifice his own life to breathe life into the girl at the heart of his soul.

Fast forward two years and by certain circumstances, he's living with his aunt and uncle. One day he's out shopping with his aunt and he spots a beautiful pair of red heels. He begs his grandma to buy them and she relents. The clock starts ticking. Fast forward to his eighth birthday, and he's living with his older cousins. They condemn his girly acts and try to beat it out of him, but he resists. Seven years of abuse passes and he separates himself from everyone. He doesn't know or remember that girl inside him, until as a joke he puts on a dress. Everything inside him swells with a feeling of comfort. He decides to find out why, and so in the late hours of the night he comes across the word transgender. In that moment he breathes his last and a young girl takes her first breath. She hides herself and refuses to talk at all. The abuse only grows worse, so on the night of her seventeenth birthday, she downs a bottle of pills meant to put her to sleep forever. But her body wont let her die, she finds herself hunched over a toilet, clinging to life.

Nine months pass, and she's opened up a little, even found a few friends; but she still hides. And so to this day, she still hides, but she helps others like her, others who went through the same thing she did.

That girl is me, my name is Erin, and I am not a boy.