Watch: In resurfaced video, Miss Arizona Erika Kirk describes tomboy childhood

Before competing in the Miss Universe contest in 2012, Erika Kirk revealed she grew up as a tomboy.

The former Miss Arizona and widow of Charlie Kirk says people mistook her for a boy because of her short haircut.

“My mom hated combing my hair because it was so knotty and my hair’s super long,” she says, “so we ended up cutting it like Bam-bam, just like straight across, bowl haircut.”

Kirk didn’t place at Miss Universe, which was owned by Donald Trump at the time. She later married Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated Sept. 10. Erika now leads the organization her late husband founded, Turning Point USA.

Gays Against Groomers posted online that the video is “an important reminder that childhood phases do not define adult identities … Had she grown up a few decades later, when gender-nonconforming kids are told they were born in the wrong body, her life would have been completely different.”

Watch the video: