Gender development and identity are driving forces as children adjust to their changing bodies. This paper presents the psychoanalytic work on these issues with a depressed and anxious 10-year-old girl on the cusp of puberty in a house with two loving fathers and a brother, who struggled with “mother hunger” in the relative absence of a female role model and flirted with symptoms of an eating disorder. Through 19 months of psychoanalysis, she developed a much stronger sense of self, a burgeoning academic prowess, and grew internal resilience to feed her “mother hunger.” While her case may not generalize to all children, for some patients treatment through psychoanalysis may be the most effective way to help them discover their sense of an embodied self and help them flourish.