That does make a lot of sense. Ok, how about this? She was suspected to be an empath in childhood (a lot of children are because little kids are a bit empathic, they grow out of it) but they can't actually test for it until they're teenagers. Her power was just weak enough to go under the radar, until she was just after testing age. Her parents helped the best they could, until her power got out of her control. 

How's that sound?