The former leader of Spokane, Washington, chapter of NAACP said the story of Caitlyn Jenner "resonated" with her.

Rachel Dolezal has been accused of portraying herself as a black woman. Her white parents released pictures from her childhood when she had lighter skin and straight, blonde hair. They told the media that she was lying about who she really is.

Since the story was picked up by media outlets, Dolezal has spoken out. She addressed her parent's claims on the "Today" show on Wednesday after leaving her post at NAACP on Monday.

"I definitely am not white," Dolezal told NBC's Savannah Guthrie.

She said she cried when she read Caitlyn Jenner's story.

"Because I resonated with some of the themes of isolation, of being misunderstood -- to not know if you have a conversation with somebody, will that relationship end then because they have seen you as one way?" she said.

Dolezal also said she has identified with being black since she was 5 years old, Yahoo! News reports.

"I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon," the 37-year-old civil rights activist said.

Caitlyn recently made her debut on the cover of Vanity Fair after revealing to ABC's Diane Sawyer that she is a woman. Formerly, she was an Olympian that went by the name of Bruce Jenner.

Throughout the week some people have asked, "If Bruce Jenner could identify as being a woman, why can't Rachel Dolezale be identified as being black?"

There were memes on social media where the Vanity Fair cover of Caitlyn was replaced with Dolezal's face edited onto the picture adding to the quote "Call me Black."

Dolezale has four adopted African American siblings. They attended a historically black university.

Although she identifies as being black, Dolezal had a lawsuit against Howard University that says she was denied a scholarship and teaching positions because she was white. The case was dismissed in 2004.

Meanwhile, she tells the world that the word white does not describe who she is.

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