For years, the 42-year-old taught her students to treat difference as a new experience. Her difference was yet to be lived.

Born Nathan and raised in DeKalb County, she said boys were supposed to play sports, get married, have kids and live happily ever after. She tried that until she couldn’t.

In 2015, she began living life as Natalie everywhere but at Dunwoody High School, where she teaches. That would change this year. She prepared her students on the last day of school in May. Mr. Williams would not be returning, she told them.

“But Ms. Williams would.”

About the Author

Keep Reading

Wade Roberts (center), a Decatur parent with children in three of the city schools, addresses concerns  with the possibility of a K-2 school closing. (Daniel Varnado for the AJC)

Credit: Daniel Varnado/For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Featured

WABE has cut staff and programming to accommodate the loss of $1.9 million in annual funding from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, which Congress defunded this month. (Rodney Ho/AJC 2025)

Credit: Rodney Ho/AJC