his heart and mind told him he was a boy. 6-year-old ryan always knew he was a boy but he wasn t born that way. this is my sister. reporter: born a girl, he began to insist he was a boy as soon as he could speak. in an on-line video, parents jeff and hillary explain their family s journey. the seven-minute clip has gone viral with 3 million views and counting. after talking to professionals, they realized this was more thaj just a tomboy phase. they made the controversial decision to change their child s identity. they cut his hair, started to refer to ryland only as he and embraced him as their son. there are huge benefits to doing it early in life. they have been handed a gift so people see them for who they are. reporter: ryland thrived.
if i couldn t be a boy because i didn t have a penis, then i was a cool kid. karina thought the cool kid identity was just a phase, but when julia entered school the gender confusion didn t end. through the course of the year, she told me that her hair had gotten stuck in the toilet so i needed to cut it. she asked me to buy her an outfit in the boy s department. karina s sister, cathy, disapproved. a tomboy phase was one thing but she felt karina was too indulging. i just felt like that was too young to let her make that kind of decision. you know, i just thought that was too drastic at that age to let her have that much control over what she was going to wear. by second grade, julia looked and acted like a boy. there were quite a few times people didn t think i was supposed to be in the girl s bathroom when i went in there.
if i couldn t be a boy because i didn t have a penis, then i was a cool kid. karina thought the cool kid identity was just a phase, but when julia entered school the gender confusion didn t end. through the course of the year, she told me that her hair had gotten stuck in the toilet so i needed to cut it. she asked me to buy her an outfit in the boy s department. karina s sister, cathy, disapproved. a tomboy phase was one thing but she felt karina was too indulging. i just felt like that was too young to let her make that kind of decision. you know, i just thought that was too drastic at that age to let her have that much control over what she was going to wear. by second grade, julia looked and acted like a boy. there were quite a few times people didn t think i was supposed to be in the girl s bathroom when i went in there. one time little young girls were peeking in my stall, hey, that s a boy. that s a boy.