Good question.
I have yet to see one of these stories that doesn't feature a crazy adult, such as this mother who thinks that a 2-year-old's liking purple things means that he "is really a girl."
The urge to whomp these people upside the head with a two-by-four is very strong. Ooops, does that mean I'm "really a man"? Let me check the latest gender-enforcement memo ...
A mother who was severely disappointed when her child was a boy, not a girl, then looked for any proof at all that the child himself acknowledged this horrible error of biology. The first time he did anything that she could interpret as stereotypically female, she was thrilled at the confirmation that her little boy understands what a horrible mistake it was for him to be male. After that, she let her confirmation bias flow, and encouraged him whenever he did something that is stereotypically female, and discouraged him from stereotypically male activities.
And now, the poor kid has developed serious mental issues. No doubt, he really wishes he were born a girl. He's probably too young to understand that his mother has been punishing him all along for the unpardonable sin of being born a boy.
There is some irony here. On the one hand, the "transgender" advocates want us to believe that gender is all in our heads and has nothing to do with biology. On the other hand, they have stereotyped activities and interests to the extent that there is no possibility that a true man could ever like to cook, or that a true woman could ever enjoy outdoor activities. They are as rigid (or even more so) about gender roles than anyone ever was in the pre-feminism days (before 1960).