Junior Vickers sat on the couch with his grandmother, watching television but aching to share a secret he'd kept for most of his 16 years.

For some reason, Junior knew that his grandmother, perhaps alone in all of Blackville, would love him no matter what and wouldn't judge him.

So he told her. For as long as he could remember, Junior Vickers felt unconnected to the boy he saw in the mirror. He didn't have a name for how he felt, but he didn't feel like a boy. He felt like a girl.

June Vickers says she grew up feeling unconnected to the boy she saw in the mirror. (June Vickers/Facebook)

And he was about to explode keeping his feelings to himself.

When Junior confided in his grandmother Marsha Vickers, she held himand assured him he was loved. They both cried.

Today, five years later, Junior has become June and she's come into her own since leaving Blackville, the central New Brunswick village where she and her identical twin, James, grew up.

Little about June's experience was easy, beginning with Blackville, a village of about 2,000 nestled in lumber and sport fishing territory near the Miramichi River.

Blackville's religious roots run deep, June said, and the Vickers household was like many others in the village.

The twins were excellent students, but June struggled with the pressure to be a good child and to live up to the family's religious expectations.

James Vickers has become a competitive body builder and hopes to be a lawyer. (James Reid Vickers/Facebook)

"I didn't want to disappoint my parents," she said