In his gentle, moving documentary short, Pink Boy—debuting on VF.com today—director Eric Rockey introduces us to Jeffrey, a “gender creative” six-year-old living in northern Florida with her great-aunt and her partner. (Jeffrey now identifies full-time as a girl, and is called Jessie, so we’ll refer to her as that going forward.) Given the political climate surrounding Jessie and her family, and indeed many Americans like Jessie, one might expect Pink Boy to be something harrowing. And while there certainly is an aura of concern surrounding Jessie and her safety and well-being, Rockey mostly shows us something hopeful and heartening, a film that could be helpful for other parents and guardians of non-gender-conforming children, and for anyone else trying to understand them.

Jessie’s great-aunt, B.J., and her then-partner, Sherrie, are as understanding as they can be as their child learns to express herself. Though, as Rockey tells us, that’s been a process: “I wouldn’t say that B.J. and Sherrie were actively encouraging this behavior, especially in the beginning, but instead gradually coming on board with it and seeing that this represented some important core to Jessie’s being. B.J. is very clear that if it were up to her, Jessie would not be wearing dresses, because . . . life could be more difficult for her. But it’s not up to her. According to B.J., ‘It’s not my job to tell [her] who [s]he is. It’s not my place.’”

As shown in one small, touching scene in Pink Boy, Jessie’s community can, at times, be just as accepting. At a county fair, Jessie wants to buy a blonde wig from a booth selling hair accessories. One might expect some kind of tense scene, it being small-town Georgia and all, but that moment never materializes. Says Rockey, “Jessie just wandered into the wig shop and started trying things on, and things developed from there. . . . I was also surprised at the lack of pushback from the wig-shop owners, who turned out to be so lovely and helpful. One of the women at the store actually bought a little pink scarf from the neighboring stall and gave it to Jessie as a gift. Though [the family has] had some people disapprove of Jessie wearing dresses in public, in general I was so happy to see how much acceptance Jessie received in her life, in her neighborhood, at school, and out in Tallahassee.”

Which, of course, is not the case for many other trans people in this country, and elsewhere. But Pink Boy at least demonstrates that a patient, loving transition is possible—for one little girl and her family, anyway.