SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A transgender student in one of the most conservative states in the union has been named prom queen.

Maka Brown says it wasn’t just a big moment for her, but the students that voted for her, as well.

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“It was like, I can’t believe this is happening to me right now,” Brown, a student at Salt Lake School for Performing Arts, says. “It was just really validating for me.”

“I didn’t realize I was trans until I was 16, about two years ago,” the student tells CBS 2.

“I was turning into a guy and I didn’t like it. All these awful changes were happening that I didn’t identify with or didn’t want to happen to me. It just felt so foreign.”

Brown’s mother, Toni, underwent therapy to help accept Maka’s change.

“When I finally learned and accepted, she blossomed,” she says.

“How could we not be accepting?” the school’s vice principal, Ron Literall, tells People magazine.

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“The students who walk through our doors are a melting pot of personality types, genders, ethnicities, and religious convictions. They are blossoming dancers, actors, musicians and scholars. We value Maka and all of our students for who they are.”

Brown arrived at the prom with her boyfriend only to discover she had been nominated for queen.

“That alone was an honor,” she says, “but then to win? I was speechless. I couldn’t believe it when they put that tiara on my head.”

Brown believes her election is proof today’s generation “is more accepting of people who are different.”

“The people at my school are so accepting and so supportive – they accept me exactly as I am,” according to Brown.

“It’s a scary thing, when you first come out and tell people you’re transgender, but everyone has been great. My friends at school have helped me to live an authentic life, to be who I am.”