by Gwen Aviles

Abby Stein discovered what the word "transgender" meant — and that the term accurately described her — when she snuck on the internet for the very first time back in 2011, in a mall bathroom, at the age of 20.

“The first thing I searched was whether a boy could turn into a girl in Hebrew — I didn’t speak English at all — and that led me to the first Hebrew Wikipedia page that was talking about transgender,” Stein told NBC’s "Today" show Tuesday. “It was the first time I heard that term. I identified as such without having words for it.”

Stein is thought to be the first openly transgender woman raised in a Hasidic community, an experience she chronicles in her memoir, “Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman,” which was released Nov. 12. Though Stein said she always felt different and was not interested in playing with boys when she was younger, she felt pressured to keep her identity secret and follow the more traditional path of living as a man, getting married and becoming a rabbi. Read more via NBC