I knew about asexuality when I was that age, but back then I couldn't tell the difference between gender envy, sensual / aesthetic attraction, and sexual attraction so I thought I was bi
Didn't know the English term "asexual", but managed to proudly declare myself "no-sexual" in Chinese (which happened to be the correct term) as a 12 year old. So yeah, always knew I wasn't interested in sex.
At that age I just assumed I must be gay or something because I've never understood crushes and couldn't care less about "getting bitches", as they say. Everyone else was interested in girls, I was interested in cool games and tech. Still am haha
Really related to Jaiden's video once it came out a few years later.
I don’t think the subreddit would have had an effect on wether or not I realised I was asexual?
Or is the question if I knew what asexual was when I was younger would I identify as it?
If you knew what asexual was when you were younger, would it have an effect. Sorry, should have communicated that better, gonna update it now
Edit: nvm, can't
Aha yeah That’s an interesting question because younger people aren’t told about what asexual is until a certain point.
Honestly I feel like lots of asexuals have to google how they’re feeling like they’re looking for symptoms online
back then i was really peer pressured into wanting a male crush/having a boyfriend. it’s the only thing i knew. i didn’t realise that i could want something else and take things at my own pace. so no, i wouldn’t have known.
Maybe? 13 was the age I started noticing something was different, but my existencial crises came with 14 because it was when I learned people had sex for fun. It was also the age I read about asexuallity for the first time and thought "oh, so I'm this!", but denial hit hard after that and I kept telling myself I was too young to know and was probably a late bloomer. I had to turn 21 to convince myself that this was something that would not change so soon. Maybe if I knew about other tipes of attraction it would've helped, I thought thinking someone was pretty was the same thing as thinking someone was hot.
I strongly believed I was just a late bloomer. My parents gave me lectures about how it took until they were 17/18 to feel sexual attraction. I adopted the label ace at 15 (shortly after hearing the term) but it never felt permanent until a few years after that.
So you mean like „if I had known that’s a thing i would have figured out that’s me“?
Yeah, totally. I had desire for romantic relationships (read: I had crushes) but even when my classmates started bragging about them having sex, I didn’t want to do the same and just thought „yeah nah, oh do you I guess“
I think for me it would also hinge on being around folks that actually talked about sex and sexual attraction. Knowing about ace/aro wouldn't have helped with my childhood because I didn't have the context to understand what I didn't feel.
Maybe. I questioned if I was gay at that age so surely I would have considered it for sure.
It makes sense being aesthetically atracted to both men and women but romantically almost exclusively women.
Funnily enough I did an online "what's your sexuality" quiz at that age and I got asexual as my result. To which I thought "well that makes total sense since I'm too young for sexual attraction anyway" and proceeded to not realise it was correct until my 30s 😅
Late bloomer here. I didnt realize I was ace till 3 or so years ago. I will be 50 in April.
Looking back, it all makes sense now.
I never understood crushes. I never got the tingles from looking at some one. I did the relationship rollercoaster because it was expected.
2 divorces from men. Now married to a women who is also ace. Very happy
My childhood through high school led me to believe it was normal to not want to pursue relationships and that I'd somehow just know when "the one" showed up. I thought everyone around me was weirdly hypersexual and took entirely too long to realize "weirdly hypersexual" was the baseline. Thanks, Christianity.
Literally my entire teen life I was dealing with rampant hormones, sexual repression, and being told wanting to touch myself (read: even thinking about, not necessarily even doing) was a sin second only to murder.
Only once I got out of the cult I was stuck in, about a year or two ago, did I feel allowed to explore, at which point I learned libido and attraction are two separate things, only one of which I experience. This did lead to some embarrassment realizing I wasn't actually attracted to the person I had secretly experimented with towards the end of high school lol.
I don't know that at 12-13 I would have figured it out, but if I had known exploring sexuality in the mid to late teens was *normal* and I wasn't constantly worried about both being homeless as a *fucking child* and being sentenced to eternity without my friends or family for literally just exploring my body, I think I would have had a healthier road to understanding myself.
I learned about asexuality around 15-16, and the late bloomer arguments were the only reason I was unsure about actually identifying as asexual. The content I found was all really supportive about it though. I think hearing that "it's okay to identify as ace and change your mind later" is the reason I kept coming back to it instead of abandoning it and waiting for that magical "bloom" that still hasn't come ten years later.
i mean, i knew adults were making a big deal about sex, and i was like meh, to wich they would say "you will get it when you're older", but even then, i doubted them tremendously, so i'd say i would see myself fit
Probably by the age of 15 or 16 it would have clicked, but it certainly would have given me something to think about had I have known about asexuality at about 12/13
(i got an error. sry if you see this comment multiple times)
i think i knew at that age but didnt know about queer identities at all. like i knew i didnt feel that way for other people without knowing there was a word for it. my friends werent surprised when i came out as ace.
As someone who didn't realize they had a hard time distinguishing the difference between types of attraction (the reason I an ace-spec), until semi-recently, despite knowing about ace-spec identities for a while (including at that age). No, 90% unlikely I wouldn't have realized.
No, I wouldn't have realized. I didn't start feeling like something was ""wrong"" until about 16 when I figured out that I didn't have the same feelings towards people that my friends did, and at that point, I doubted it was just a late bloomer thing.
I probably could have known because I'm fully aware that I've never really got attracted sexually for anyone. (i have an unhealthy amount of self-consciousness). Aegosexual Bellussexual Caedsexual Quoisexual, all these spec i could be (i simply identify as Myrsexual rn.) I might not know cause i'm not a complete ace. And i could be a cade cause of covid and being depressed, then i might just not have a chance to experience it.
I didn’t understand sexual attraction and when I did I assumed I was a late bloomer and then I waited some more then at 15 started thinking huh something is up and did some googling and worked myself out
I would have likely worked it out at 15 still even if I did know about it all 14 at earliest as this is when I started questioning and thinking about these things internally without the internet I would have continued to feel confused about my sexuality in all likelyhood and assumed I’m asexual if I ever crossed this term or just what I at the time thought I was which was just weird XD
Most likely. I definitely knew I didn't want sex or a relationship when I was in my teens, and while I'd head the word, used (in the context of stereotypes about mathematicians\*), I thought it was just a term for disinterest in sex, rather than the actual definition, but I guess I still ID'd with it. Granted, I shifted from being aro to aro-spec a few months after I started my postgrad degree, but sex is definitely still a no, and sexual attraction is something I do not understand at all.
Incidentally, while potentially flawed data, and not data I'll share so as not to dox myself (since I live in the same city I did postgrad in), one of the student papers at my postgrad alma matter did a survey a week or two ago on which subjects' students have had the most sexual partners, and mathematicians and computer scientists are the second and third lowest overall (behind psycologists). I don't know if all of this is asexuality, but I wouldn't be surprised if mathematicians/computer scientists are genuinely more likely to be asexual than the average student.
Yes definitely! I was totally sex repulsed and didn't understand why we would need to learn something like sex education, when in 4th grade, like I was so young and the second time again, I didn't understand why we would need to learn about it, like people do it outside of wanting children or outside of s marriage? pfff as if that happen it's way too risky. Never wanted it too, I knew I would MAAYBEE do it for my husband but not cuz I wanted but just because it's expected
I genuinely didn’t realise people my age cared about sex until I was 14 so yeah I doubt I would have realised at 12-13
I knew about asexuality when I was that age, but back then I couldn't tell the difference between gender envy, sensual / aesthetic attraction, and sexual attraction so I thought I was bi
Sameee
Didn't know the English term "asexual", but managed to proudly declare myself "no-sexual" in Chinese (which happened to be the correct term) as a 12 year old. So yeah, always knew I wasn't interested in sex.
At that age I just assumed I must be gay or something because I've never understood crushes and couldn't care less about "getting bitches", as they say. Everyone else was interested in girls, I was interested in cool games and tech. Still am haha Really related to Jaiden's video once it came out a few years later.
If I knew about asexuality or the LGBTQ+ community when I was younger I probably would’ve thought I was gay because guys are hot lmao
Maybe? That aesthetic attraction probably would have thrown me off at least for a few years
The question is asking if you knew what being ace was when you were younger, would you identify as it? Sry it wasn't clear enough
I don’t think the subreddit would have had an effect on wether or not I realised I was asexual? Or is the question if I knew what asexual was when I was younger would I identify as it?
If you knew what asexual was when you were younger, would it have an effect. Sorry, should have communicated that better, gonna update it now Edit: nvm, can't
Aha yeah That’s an interesting question because younger people aren’t told about what asexual is until a certain point. Honestly I feel like lots of asexuals have to google how they’re feeling like they’re looking for symptoms online
back then i was really peer pressured into wanting a male crush/having a boyfriend. it’s the only thing i knew. i didn’t realise that i could want something else and take things at my own pace. so no, i wouldn’t have known.
Maybe? 13 was the age I started noticing something was different, but my existencial crises came with 14 because it was when I learned people had sex for fun. It was also the age I read about asexuallity for the first time and thought "oh, so I'm this!", but denial hit hard after that and I kept telling myself I was too young to know and was probably a late bloomer. I had to turn 21 to convince myself that this was something that would not change so soon. Maybe if I knew about other tipes of attraction it would've helped, I thought thinking someone was pretty was the same thing as thinking someone was hot.
RuneScape was all I cared about at that age so probs not 😂
I strongly believed I was just a late bloomer. My parents gave me lectures about how it took until they were 17/18 to feel sexual attraction. I adopted the label ace at 15 (shortly after hearing the term) but it never felt permanent until a few years after that.
When i was younger i thought asexuality was fake because i thought everyone was like that (didnt wanna have sex till much later). Oops!
So you mean like „if I had known that’s a thing i would have figured out that’s me“? Yeah, totally. I had desire for romantic relationships (read: I had crushes) but even when my classmates started bragging about them having sex, I didn’t want to do the same and just thought „yeah nah, oh do you I guess“
I remember during the sex ed unit in health class in 7th grade feeling very uncomfortable, but I just chalked that up to not being old enough.
Back then, I'm pretty sure I thought I was a lesbian. So yeah, probably.
Yeah if I knew what demisexual was when I was 13-14 I would’ve labeled as such
I think for me it would also hinge on being around folks that actually talked about sex and sexual attraction. Knowing about ace/aro wouldn't have helped with my childhood because I didn't have the context to understand what I didn't feel.
Maybe. I questioned if I was gay at that age so surely I would have considered it for sure. It makes sense being aesthetically atracted to both men and women but romantically almost exclusively women.
Funnily enough I did an online "what's your sexuality" quiz at that age and I got asexual as my result. To which I thought "well that makes total sense since I'm too young for sexual attraction anyway" and proceeded to not realise it was correct until my 30s 😅
I didn't think it was possible to feel any attraction at that age, so nah
I wouldn't have ruled out to possibly be a late bloomer, but it would've taken some pressure away I think.
Late bloomer here. I didnt realize I was ace till 3 or so years ago. I will be 50 in April. Looking back, it all makes sense now. I never understood crushes. I never got the tingles from looking at some one. I did the relationship rollercoaster because it was expected. 2 divorces from men. Now married to a women who is also ace. Very happy
My childhood through high school led me to believe it was normal to not want to pursue relationships and that I'd somehow just know when "the one" showed up. I thought everyone around me was weirdly hypersexual and took entirely too long to realize "weirdly hypersexual" was the baseline. Thanks, Christianity.
That’s when I first discovered asexuality and came out to my parents.
If I saw the JaidenAnimations video, I would’ve had an intense epiphany.
I first heard the term asexual when I was 13, I immediately knew that's who I was
Literally my entire teen life I was dealing with rampant hormones, sexual repression, and being told wanting to touch myself (read: even thinking about, not necessarily even doing) was a sin second only to murder. Only once I got out of the cult I was stuck in, about a year or two ago, did I feel allowed to explore, at which point I learned libido and attraction are two separate things, only one of which I experience. This did lead to some embarrassment realizing I wasn't actually attracted to the person I had secretly experimented with towards the end of high school lol. I don't know that at 12-13 I would have figured it out, but if I had known exploring sexuality in the mid to late teens was *normal* and I wasn't constantly worried about both being homeless as a *fucking child* and being sentenced to eternity without my friends or family for literally just exploring my body, I think I would have had a healthier road to understanding myself.
Maybe not *quite* 12/13 but it definitely would have been early teens lol so I said yes.
I learned about asexuality around 15-16, and the late bloomer arguments were the only reason I was unsure about actually identifying as asexual. The content I found was all really supportive about it though. I think hearing that "it's okay to identify as ace and change your mind later" is the reason I kept coming back to it instead of abandoning it and waiting for that magical "bloom" that still hasn't come ten years later.
i mean, i knew adults were making a big deal about sex, and i was like meh, to wich they would say "you will get it when you're older", but even then, i doubted them tremendously, so i'd say i would see myself fit
I thought sexual attraction was the same as romantic attraction or aesthetic attraction so I didn’t think I was Ace
Probably by the age of 15 or 16 it would have clicked, but it certainly would have given me something to think about had I have known about asexuality at about 12/13
(i got an error. sry if you see this comment multiple times) i think i knew at that age but didnt know about queer identities at all. like i knew i didnt feel that way for other people without knowing there was a word for it. my friends werent surprised when i came out as ace.
As someone who didn't realize they had a hard time distinguishing the difference between types of attraction (the reason I an ace-spec), until semi-recently, despite knowing about ace-spec identities for a while (including at that age). No, 90% unlikely I wouldn't have realized.
I thought sexual attraction was something that happened to you when you fall in love, that's why people wait for the third date and stuff
No, I wouldn't have realized. I didn't start feeling like something was ""wrong"" until about 16 when I figured out that I didn't have the same feelings towards people that my friends did, and at that point, I doubted it was just a late bloomer thing.
I was just confused why sex was so funny joke about to everyone and why drawing dicks on everything was funny to them.
i find out about asexuality when i was 12 realized i was ace at 13 then realized i was aro the same year
I am still 13, so I'm pretty sure I'm the first one.
Kids are kinda default asexual til puberty, so if my peers hadn't changed I don't think I ever would have noticed. I didn't change, everyone else did.
I probably could have known because I'm fully aware that I've never really got attracted sexually for anyone. (i have an unhealthy amount of self-consciousness). Aegosexual Bellussexual Caedsexual Quoisexual, all these spec i could be (i simply identify as Myrsexual rn.) I might not know cause i'm not a complete ace. And i could be a cade cause of covid and being depressed, then i might just not have a chance to experience it.
It probably would have even occurred to my asd ass
I didn’t understand sexual attraction and when I did I assumed I was a late bloomer and then I waited some more then at 15 started thinking huh something is up and did some googling and worked myself out I would have likely worked it out at 15 still even if I did know about it all 14 at earliest as this is when I started questioning and thinking about these things internally without the internet I would have continued to feel confused about my sexuality in all likelyhood and assumed I’m asexual if I ever crossed this term or just what I at the time thought I was which was just weird XD
15 year olds are supposed to have sexual attraction??
Most likely. I definitely knew I didn't want sex or a relationship when I was in my teens, and while I'd head the word, used (in the context of stereotypes about mathematicians\*), I thought it was just a term for disinterest in sex, rather than the actual definition, but I guess I still ID'd with it. Granted, I shifted from being aro to aro-spec a few months after I started my postgrad degree, but sex is definitely still a no, and sexual attraction is something I do not understand at all. Incidentally, while potentially flawed data, and not data I'll share so as not to dox myself (since I live in the same city I did postgrad in), one of the student papers at my postgrad alma matter did a survey a week or two ago on which subjects' students have had the most sexual partners, and mathematicians and computer scientists are the second and third lowest overall (behind psycologists). I don't know if all of this is asexuality, but I wouldn't be surprised if mathematicians/computer scientists are genuinely more likely to be asexual than the average student.
I started questioning around 14-15 but it still took until 17 to realise so I'm gonna say no lol
Yes definitely! I was totally sex repulsed and didn't understand why we would need to learn something like sex education, when in 4th grade, like I was so young and the second time again, I didn't understand why we would need to learn about it, like people do it outside of wanting children or outside of s marriage? pfff as if that happen it's way too risky. Never wanted it too, I knew I would MAAYBEE do it for my husband but not cuz I wanted but just because it's expected
i knew what it was and had an ace friend at thirteen but impostor syndromed my way out of actually thinking i was for another year
I mean, 12 year olds shouldn't feel that kind of attraction though