From an early age, Skylar (formally Mary) knew that they were different from everyone else. Despite the efforts of their mom and dad, most of girliness just seemed wrong to her. So did much of boyishness for that matter, though their exploration of that in childhood was less pronounced. That was before puberty, which just felt wrong. They dated a few boys and (on the quiet) a couple of girls. Around age 17 Skylar came to accept that they were neither female or male, but something other. It had alienated them from their parents and a fair deal of their social circle in their conservative hometown. There were a few other non-binary people in the city where they moved, but they always felt like a stranger in a strange land and even there they felt like an outsider.
Eventually an a poster nailed to a telephone pole led them to the magic shop, exactly why they went there was a bit of a haze. Never the less, on a dusty shelf they found the machine. They'd read the instructions about the changes this could make and somehow knew that this was true. They bought it and took it home to their small apartment and considered what to do with it.
Eventually they came up with a plan to make a world where they'd fit in...