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Kids Reacting to Caitlyn Jenner Will Give You Hope for the Future

No judgment, just love. With so many people talking about Caitlyn Jenner‘s big Vanity Fair reveal on June 1, educational media group Hatch by SheKnows decided to seek out the opinions of a rarely heard-from focus group: kids.

Related: PHOTOS: Caitlyn Jenner through the years

The company gathered a group of children ages 9 to 11 to get their reactions to Jenner’s coming out as a transgender woman. The kids were shown two photos of the I Am Cait star, 65: one of her as an Olympian in the 1970s, and another from her recent Vanity Fair shoot with Annie Leibovitz. They were then asked to describe the pictures — and the person in them.

caitlyn jenner vanity fair cover
Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair

Interestingly, the kids seemed to pick up on Jenner’s self-assuredness in the second snap. “She looks like she’s in charge and she knows what she’s doing,” one said of the VF shot. Added another: “She looks really confident, and I like her dress.”

Related: PHOTOS: Celebrity LGBT allies

Afterward, the moderator revealed that the person in the first photo was the same as the person in the second photo.

The kids were surprised — one asked, “How could a boy turn into a girl?!” — but otherwise very accepting. “Who she wants to be is who she should be,” one said.

Related: PHOTOS: Kardashian family album

From there the discussion turned to other people’s reactions to Jenner, both positive and negative. Hearing some examples of the latter, the kids looked shocked.

“Maybe they’re just a little overwhelmed, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this person is taking such a big step in life,’ and they don’t understand what it feels like to just be who you want to be,” one suggested, prompting another to pipe in, “I think it’s partly because the people who are saying that are afraid to change themselves.”

Related: PHOTOS: Talked-about magazine covers

In the end, the group agreed that we should all be true to ourselves, regardless of other people’s opinions. As one summed it up, “It’s important to be yourself because if you’re not yourself then who are you?”

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