Almost every one of the dozens of families with whom I’ve spoken in recent months told me the same story: Their daughter suffered from an underlying mental condition like body dysmorphia or high-functioning autism, and the anxieties and emotions they experienced as a result made them the perfect targets for gender ideologues. Gender ideology gives them a community, a group of social misfits just like them with whom to connect. And most importantly, it provides them with an explanation for why they feel so out of place in their changing bodies and social environments. If you believe you’re born into the wrong body, then of course it makes sense why you hate the way you look and struggle to fit in with girls your age. You’re not a girl, after all.

The social pressures these girls face are nothing new. Back when I was in middle and high school, they most commonly displayed themselves through eating disorders, like anorexia or bulimia. Now, they’re appearing in the form of transgenderism. Indeed, a friend of mine who works as a social worker in Washington state told me recently that more than half of the children she works with identify as a gender different than their sex or as no gender at all. This is a social epidemic, and it is devastating the very children who need our help the most.