BOISE, Idaho — By the time Peyton Badalucco came out to his mother as transgender, he had been secretly binding his chest in a desperate attempt to hide his body. He was 14 years old and so miserable that he could barely muster the emotional strength to leave the house.

Coming out led to months of counseling, a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and, finally, hormone therapy when he was 15. He lost several friends while transitioning, he said, but as his body changed, his depression and anxiety faded, and he stopped worrying about what people thought.

“Once I got over that,” said Peyton, now an 18-year-old high school senior, “I just started feeling a lot more free to be who I truly am.”

Hormone therapy made all the difference for Peyton, as it aligned his body with his gender identity. In a video he posted on a YouTube channel shortly after his transition began, he told the camera that his life before transitioning had been like “forcing yourself to be someone that you’re not.”