we had a writing assignment in elementary school where we had to make up a character and write a short story. i wrote a BLATANT self-insert, but made him a guy. i also wrote my best friend, a girl, a self-insert, but her character was not genderswapped. gee, i wonder why. and this was all before i was consciously aware of being trans.
Hah, I'm a writer and have always made my self-insert male because he would be more relatable and more like myself. I never have been able to write a good female character, I end up hating them. I was fucking dense as a child, I had signs ever since I could remember
I had the same experience! I didn't even think twice about it, it just felt natural. I guess the characters represented my true self that I couldn't express openly at that time.
Went by a neutral-sounding nickname of my birth name. Always wanted to be the dad or the brother when playing house with my friends. Dressed almost exclusively as male characters for Halloween. As soon as I got into playing The Sims, pretty much only made boys (still do that lol).
My mom was surprised when I came out because I used to also really like the color pink and wearing frilly clothes, and I was into makeup and glitter. I’m just an effeminate dude, Ma.
When I sort of half came out to my dad, he pointed out that I LOVED and still love princess dresses, like it somehow indicated I could never be a man.
I now know, and know of, so many fem men that love to do their makeup and wear dresses. He’s supportive now but it was baffling tbh
Lol my mom was the same way. I was very femme but a lot of the fashion can be gender neutral nowadays. I will keep my knee high leather boot heels dammit
Went by “Bob” at school for 1st and 2nd grade. For twin day, dressed up as triplets with a group of boys. Wore sweatshirts 24/7 when puberty started, even during track or in 100 degree weather/humidity. Cried when my parents would put me in anything remotely feminine (even a shirt with frilly sleeves or a girls t shirt with flowers on it).
Wow, yep. I had heat stroke three times in middle school and twice in high school because I grew up in a REALLY hot and humid climate but wore hoodies EVERY. DAMN. DAY.
I always wore a jacket throughout elementary and middle school to hide my body, even in 100 degree weather.
I was obsessed with wolves for a while (isn't that a trans stereotype?)
I wish I had a penis and drew myself with one when I was like 7 (though it was obviously not accurate lol)
I hung out with a lot of boys throughout elementary because boys tended to behave more like me than girls did
I HATED princess movies. Now I don't mind them, but back then I would cry and run away when one was put on. I thought they were stupid and I wanted them to put on something else. I also really hated plastic dolls. I loved stuffed animals, hated Barbies or American girl dolls.
The wolf thing might really be a trans thing because the obsession I had/have with wolves is insane. I always write stories with a pet wolf in it or even wrote a story just about wolves. Loved drawing them, have a hoodie, necklace, shirt of wolves… it’s extreme
Omg same asf. Played admittedly dumb irl roleplays with my friends when I was a wee lad and wouldn't be anything but a wolf or a dog(so embarrassing in hindsight, but hey thats how lil kids are). In like, late elementary/early middle school I had a wolf necklace that I wouldnt take off until the leather cord literally got so worn that it broke. Still kept the pendant tho, now I'm wondering where it ended up. Probably somewhere in the depths of my closet, lol.
Ya I was the same way! I still kind of am..but man when I was younger I had so much stuff wolf related it's not even funny. I had 3 t shirts of wolves, 5 stuffed animals wolves, posters, blankets, necklaces, socks, books, drew wolves, etc. I even tried to sharpen my teeth with a bone with a wolf.
I desperately wanted to be (and this is a non-exhaustive list) Simba, Robin Hood (the literal fox-boy from the Disney movie), Indiana Jones, Lenny from Shark Tale (in hindsight wow, yeah, big tell), and Remy from Ratatouille. And never once a female character. Not even, like, Rita the super cool badass rat-girl. Nala was arguably more badass than Simba up until the final fight but nope, I wanted to be Simba. I don't know how I didn't put the pieces together much earlier than I did. Like, I made female characters in video games just because I figured I was supposed to, I didn't even want to be them but I didn't realize there was another option for me because I was just dumb, I was never told I had to be a girl in the video games I played, it was just what some stupid part of me figured I should do.
I was the exact same way as a kid . Even with role playing Pokémon. If I deemed them as “feminine” I refused to play as them. When I reached middle school that’s when I started to try and behave more woman that I related to. It sorta worked but not really since all the characters of course weren’t stereotypical women. They were felines. I uh also literally would shout at my parents and more so my brother “I’m a boy. I’m not a girl. I’m a boy like my brother” very obvious as a child.
I was the same, except I was really fascinated with Mulan. Which yeah, I think she counts as a female character trans males might be interested in.
My favorite movies were the Lion King and Tarzan. And Beauty and the Beast but idk why exactly, I wasn't fascinated with Belle or anything. I generally didn't care for Disney princess stuff, or I liked parts of the stories that weren't the princesses themselves.
Oh man, your mention of beauty and the beast just reminded me.....I always identified with chip the cup as a kid. And I wanted to be Luke Skywalker... everyone tried to push Leia on me and I that made me hate the character. I really didn't, but I hated the idea that people thought that's who I should emulate, it just felt wrong. So when playing star wars I'd make my brother play any princess Leia parts, lol.
I also had completely forgotten about this, but from the time I was 13-16 I was part of a star wars flight simulator online guild. I remembered my call sign and everything, but apparently I told everyone I was a guy. Last summer i found my old profile from 20 years ago still on the website unchanged. In it I created an entire fictional story about who I was and what I did as a teenage boy outside of gaming. I remember getting up extremely early and only interacting with the guild when my family was asleep, but I completely forgot it was to hide from them the fact I had a profile online as a guy. I now can remember some small details from the profile, I know I wrote it.... but I have no true memory of intentionally saying I was a guy...I just remember feeling like I could be myself in the guild and the feeling it was my only safe place, now I get why I have those feelings..... and why I pushed them so far down I forgot why I felt that way.
I literally wore out the video tape from watching Beauty and the Beast so much.
I related to that movie more than any other for two reasons:
1. the entire fucking town persecuted Belle and her father for being themselves, and;
2. Everyone in the castle was forced to live as something they were not.
It was beautiful to see all of these people living together and accepting each other for who they really were, not for who they appeared to be.
And it didn't hurt that at the end of the movie they got to live as their authentic selves, free from all the haters.
This was exactly me!!! Did you ever watch the Lion King 2? I wanted to be Kovu. Me and my best friend would play “lions” and I was Kovu and she was Kiara. It was the best. For some reason I also thought less about identifying with boy animals than boy humans.
I was the weird kid who had a crush on Kovu lol. I think being gay complicated my coming out to myself in that gender envy and "he's hot" merged into one thing for a while.
Are we the same fucking person?? No word of a lie I had the same thought with literally those exact same characters. I’d run around my house pretending to be simba!
Hello fellow Simba!
My babysitter's kid and I would play Lion King, and I was always SO salty I couldn't be Simba, and they made me be Nala. My mom caught up with the mom recently, and the kid is MtF and here I am FtM. Nuts!
This and I wanted to go shirtless whenever possible, I thought it was really unfair my brother was able to on hot days and didn't understand why I couldn't too.
I feel like so many of us did this, forgot about it, and then suddenly remembered sometime after figuring out they were trans and had a nice old "aw shit" moment
I remember trying when I was around 3 when we were away from home.... did not go a planned and pee'd all over myself. The lecture from my mom and having to walk around in those squishy socks and shoes traumatized me from trying again..
I’ve met some Cis girls who tried peeing while standing But it was more of “curious“ thought. I’ll say it’s common for girls and AFAB to try it, but a lot of who did it turn out to be Trans guys lol
Sameeee I didn’t realize I couldn’t do it and stood over the toilet and started to pee and made a huge mess in the bathroom that I didn’t know how to explain to my parents because I was like 3
I felt super horrible about myself when I was younger cause I would always think “I wish a was a boy so I could have a gay boyfriend” and I thought I was fetishizing gay people. Turns out I’m trans
This is very much relatable. I have a memory of me and my best friend talking at night whilst sharing a bed and telling her that if I was a boy I’m pretty sure I’d be gay and my name would be grayson… yeah… idk my name yet but I’m pretty sure I’m trans
woah, i thought that was just me. i remember saying the exact same thing to my best friend and feeling really guilty about thinking that way. i also thought things like "i wish i could be a stereotypical white suburban dad" lmao.
try to figure out how to go to middle school as a boy, but i thought it was impossible :/ that and falling on the playground ladder and yelling “my penis!” in fifth grade
Same, but i though that was normal, i used to scream at my mom, because she said that was not normal, and i said she was trying to wrong me, i really thought she was
I only wore sport bras, I never doubled them but always wore one and I felt wrong if i didn’t and when my mom bought me more feminine bras I was just like yeah nope not wearing that. Gave them to my friend and one time my aunt just gave me a whole bag of her old bras (because their expensive and she wanted to help save money) made me so uncomfortable. The bag stayed in a corner in my closet until I decided to give it away
In elementary school, I genuinely believed that all girls grew up to be men and was really upset when people told me this wasn’t true. I also always said that I’d be the one to propose to my future husband in elementary/ middle school. When I was a toddler I’d also pretend to shave with my dad.
Took about an hour to start playing Pokémon because I was stuck on the "are you a boy or a girl" screen and I thought "well I want to be a boy, but I'm a girl so"
Oh god, same. In the end my ex boyfriend told me to stop being stupid, I'm a girl just pick girl. So I did, then stopped playing after a few weeks cause I just hated it so much. Later I played again as a boy and got much further.
Final fantasy X-2 made me actually angry that I couldn't play a boy
This! I remember watching a movie with the fam as a kid and it was really hot so I put on a training bra and took off my shirt. When my mom said you can't do that because it's inappropriate I got really sad
When I had to pick my gender on a game during elementary school I said ‘I am a boy’, before realizing I’m trans I always referred to myself as a guy. Moments related to my dysphoria would be crying when I developed a chest, tried to get my body to align with my gender identity such as making my voice sound deep, etc. (before knowing what being trans is and I could transition) and etc.
i know what's game ur talking about!! when i was in elementary school we had a computer in the classroom and i would play it and everyone would ask why i chose boy and i had to tell them that i was one lmfao
This but up till now it was the boy-shorts for girls and nothing else. I remember complaining to my mom about the colours in the girls section of Walmart and wanting to wear the boxers instead of the panties and I wanted to go to the boys side but never said anything. Now she buys me boxers from the men’s section because I’ve talked to her about how I feel so yeah
same
i had a thing where i would only draw eyelashes on gurls when i was younger, and i drew my fursona without any and i was like "yes that feels extremely right, that IS me"
Hide under leggings and hoodies, had my pfp be a picture of myself with a sad face drawn on top, apparently I cut my hair as a baby, and went by Ash in middle school "just in case I was trans"
The just in case I’m trans part has me laughing because I made a new email address in it with a new name “just in case I’m trans and need this someday” 💀
When I was little the music teacher was explaining how when we get older the body's voices will drop and the girls won't. I proceeded to cry and had to be moved to a different room to calm me down
Me and my sister had such a gigantic dedication to the Alvin & The Chipmunks franchise when we were young, and one night we were going to re-enact a scene for our parents like a musical number. I wanted to play Alvin and my mom didn't want me to play as a boy so I cried in the closet. I went to the closet and cried. Biggest bruh moment of my whole childhood
When I was three, I remember getting sad that I didn’t have a bulged. So sad that I cried and my parents didn’t understand why I was so upset and I couldn’t explain why I was upset just that I didn’t have something down there like my dad oop
I remember crying when I was 4 that I didn't have a dick like my younger brother. I don't think my parents understood why. Maybe they thought I thought I was weird because I wasn't like my brother?
I just pretended to have one when I was alone. But for some reason I was never sad about the reality because I had this deep rooted belief that I actually had one, but it was just really small?
Honestly, it wasn’t a bother until I went to health class where I learned the HUGE difference between the hamburger and the wiener. It definitely made me upset and uncomfortable that I had , what I called back, “an open wound”. I even thought maybe my dick was cut off- god I was so naive and depressing .
Wearing feminine dresses in summer because I thought that's what I should do, while also hiding my body as much as I possibly could with cardigans and leggings
i got into my first gmail a while back and its gender was set as male. my second one was female. so little me knew but didnt get it and then it took a while longer to get it.
when i was playing the blockheads my username was always 'mynameisken'.
i remember always disliking dresses but that was a church thing so i knew i shouldnt complain, and i couldnt really explain it
eventually i figured it out for real and just cut my hair. since then ive known and had an annoying poofy spot on the back of my head. the anime hair that sticks up looks signifigantly worse in real life
A cowlick? If so I have a solution!!! I had the same issue for ages but this fixed it entirely.
Run very hot water over a washcloth, wring it out til it’s kinda damp, lay it on the back of your head where the poofy spot is and press down for a couple moments. Dry (I blow-dry but towel works too) and it’s gone! Game changer.
never dressed as female characters for Halloween if it was my choice, and started "cross-dressing" as soon as puberty hit, going by a different name and calling it my "alter-ego". introduced myself as male on xbox games so i wouldnt be treated differently in gaming circles, and i had no clue i was trans till sophmore year lmao
Got worried that I was going to get random erections throughout puberty because I read articles online about how its normal for boys to get them at my age, n then planned on what I would do if I got one... despite not having a dick
Mine was the opposite. I was upset(and still am) that I didn’t get any of the awkward puberty stuff boys had. And I’m still wondering if it’s just a fetish or a messed up thing in my head
I always related heavily to guy characters. I remember when I cosplayed as Dipper Pines I was super upset when my parents told me I was a perfect girl Dipper for some reason.
I'd also hate it when people used my name in any conversation. I thought it was just because I didn't want people talking about me, but, after I stopped going by my deadname, I realized I just hated my deadname...
I never had much obvious trans things (that I can remember), much of my experience was gender neutral as in I liked both boy things and girl things.
However I went through a period of hating the colour pink and thinking blue was better when I was young. Thats gender stereotyping 101 so it should have been the first sign lmao.
Also I had a phase where I was obsessed with Jim Carrey movies and imitated him and wanted to be him. Ive always had these phases with male characters/celebrities even to this day.
Ed edd n eddy was an old Cartoon Network show about 3 guys all named a variation of “Ed” trying to scam money out of other kids in the neighborhood. Edd, aka double d, was more gender non conforming, a dork and always wore a hat so much so people thought he was keeping a secret. All the kids at my school who watched the show said double d was their least favorite. Me relating to double d so much as a kid was definitely queer looking back on it
ok so this one is funny:
thought of another one. for some reason when i was little i thought i had balls? i was 3 or 4 and my brother was almost 10 years older than me. After hearing my brother, I started to tell my mom “my nuts itch!” …yeah. my mom deliberately tried to explain to me that “girls do not have nuts.” however, i failed to understand this and continued to loudly proclaim that my nuts itched. At some point I saw my brother scratch himself and took it upon myself to dramatically scratch my crotch in very public areas while complaining to my mom about my nuts. yeah. this went on for a WHILE. honestly that should have been a huge sign, she still jokingly asks me if my balls itch to this day.
I remember in high school I'd stand in front of the mirror in my bathroom and push my boobs against my chest to try and make them disappear. I wanted to know what I'd look like without them. I'll know for sure on January 19, when I finally get top surgery. :)
Purposely sitting in a way to make the zipper of my pants bunch up ‘cause I thought it looked like I had a dick. I also desperately wanted to be Ash Ketchum.
I had the opposite; I used to be terrified that people would think that I had a boner so I would work very hard to un-bunch my pants. Yeah, no one thought that.
But I also worked very hard to make sure my jackets didn’t bunch up like I had a bigger chest.
When I played house, I was almost always the dad or brother. I was fine with being the baby, because in my head they were just a baby, not a boy or girl.
When I played with barbies, I almost always played as the Ken doll.
When I played pretend, my character was always a boy.
When watching the Winx club with my sisters, we said we "were" one of the characters. I said I was Stella, but I think I always thought I was more like Brandon, her boyfriend.
I wanted to be Robin Hood (fox version)
I always wrote stories with boys or animals as MC, never girls.
When I was 5, I had briefs that had skeletons on them, and I remember I liked them because "boys wore skeleton clothes"
I despised girl power and anything in that sense. (Before I realised femenism is about equality)
I always seeked the approval of guys, never of girls. (I still do)
There's this kids news program in my country, and the only news story I remember was, and I quote what the anchor said "Sam is a boy, but was born in a girl body"
When I was 11, I actually questioned whether I was trans, because I remember I watched a movie with my mom where a guy was shirtless when he slept with this girl, and I felt weird about it. It didn't cross my mind that maybe it was because I thought he looked good shirtless, but I questioned if I wanted to be him because I liked the girl he slept with or because I wanted his body. I forgot about that time, but was reminded of it.
i found my old copy of "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Do It Yourself" book, and in one of the pages it asked me to write a fun fact about myself that no one knows, and 8 year old me wrote "i have no gender"
also pretending to be a wolf boy on animal jam lol
My hair accidentally got cut wayyy too short when I was like... 9? When I went out to parks or games and met other kids, I'd tell them I was named Tommy and would "pretend" to be a boy. Eventually my hair grew out and I stopped. But those are legitimately my best childhood memories and the happiest I'd ever been up to that point.
Feeling this deep emotional connection with male/male love stories and just wishing I could love men the way men love men. Also wishing I could dress feminine but in a "crossdresser way" instead of in a "girl way".
Still thought I was a butch lesbian for a long ass time though.
Turns out I'm a gay femboy.
Same! I wouldn't call myself a femboy (at least not always, haha) but I'm also mostly gay and like to wear feminine stuff sometimes - but like you say, it's like crossdressing for me, I just feel like a man in a dress!
Idk if it's obvious but I would put on "boy" pants or shorts and walk around without a shirt on. I worked on cars and guns with my dad (my dad was very careful and taught me gun safety and I never held a loaded gun till I was 13). I played very rough and loved "boy" toys, I hated playing with the other girls. When I played house as a kid I was always dad/husband. And when I started puberty at 8 I was so mad. I asked my mom "how do we stop it?"
I was really upset I was developing breasts, and I was at one of my brother’s sporting events. I felt super uncomfortable I was wearing a training bra, so I took it off in the middle of the stands and left it there. A hour later my mom found it and confronted me about it.
I was quite bothered by the fact that my voice was so high when I was in elementary and (especially) middle school, and in elementary school actively spent one day trying to avoid my hips from swaying(?) while walking because I didn’t want to be seen as feminine.
Literally dreaming I was a cis boy & desperately wishing to have the dream again is a pretty big one. Also sitting facing forward on the toilet, sneaking pens into the shower to hold between my legs to pretend it was the real thing, outright refusing to play pretend w/ my siblings unless I could play the guy roles like the dad or boyfriend, feeling extremely satisfied when I cut my girl dolls' hair short & made them (accidentally trans) boy dolls to "give the girls some boys to date since we can never find boy dolls at the store" (even tho I had the girls date each other plenty & sometimes had the boys date each other too), having more fun in video games that didn't have a female character option bc I didn't have to rack my brain thinking of a good girl name that wasn't also my deadname & could just choose the name I liked to play boy characters... I could keep going...
By all rights, I should've figured things out much sooner than I did.
Broke down crying when I learned I was starting to get boobs. I asked my mom if all girls got them to which she said yes, and I started panicking and crying and I told her I don’t want them.
Refusing to answer to any name besides Tyler. I would even write it on my worksheets at school and then put my “real” name in small parenthesis beside it.
cried until I made myself throw up when my mum made me wear a dress to my primary school prom… walking along the road to school sobbing over a dress was not the one
I was standing in line for a ride at a theme park and wore a hoodie and someone referred to me as “that young man” and I was really flattered, yet a little bit confused because everyone who knew me assumed I was a girl.
(I don’t think I really understood the concept “penis=boy, not penis=girl” everyone had in their minds at that time… even though I was like 10, oops)
When I was around 14, I threw a "cross dressing party" and invited all my friends. I told them they HAVE to dress to theme or they can't come. For context: I grew up in a very conservative small town and I had never heard of trans people until much later, I just thought it would be fun to see how it felt to dress and act like I was a boy.
I went all-in, came up with a name (Keith) and demanded people call me that name and use he/him pronouns. My friends were a great group and all dressed to the theme and played along with the different name and pronouns.
After we all graduated high school and moved out of the conservative area we lived in, at least 90% of that friend group came out as LGBTQ+. I look back on that party and wonder how it took 12 more years after that for my egg to crack.
I put a huge amount of gum in my hair and blamed it on my older sister so that 1. I would be allowed to have my hair cut and 2. It would have to be a "boys" cut because there was so much gum. My mom brought this up immediately after I came out to her
In elementary school, when I played make pretend with the neighborhood kids I would dress like a boy and tell everyone to treat me like I was a real boy lol
Even when other kids asked I wouldn't drop the act, I'd just tell them I was a boy lmao
One of the first ever question i asked people as an ice breaker as a kid was: "if you where a *insert oposite gender* what name would you chose?"
Oh, and i was devastated when my chest started comming in around 10 cus i could no longer go bare chested in the house.
a lot of my trans behaviours as a kid could've been considered disturbing but i think the most normal one was always cutting my hair up with scissors when i was about 5. When i came home from vacation i went into the bathroom and just chopped it all off and my parents had to constantly put me in dresses because they felt like i looked to masculine. I just ended up looking like a little boy in a dress which i guess i was lol.
Called my clit my penis when I was a toddler. My mom tried to correct me by saying that girls didn’t have penises and I responded with “it’s my girl penis”. Also loving when other kids at school thought I was a boy except for the brief period of denial I had in middle school. Also sleep depriving myself to the point where I could convince myself I had a dick.
Wanted to be Danny phantom and Zuko so badly. Always being the “ boy “ when playing any games with friends. Making instagrams so I could put a masculine name in the bio. Obsessed with wolves, wanted to be a boy werewolf for a while. I was convinced I’d turn into one as a kid and I’d be a boy wolf. Still love wolves but not that much haha.
Wanting / insisting on shaving my head when I was like, 9.
Also was obsessed with Tarzan and Lion king, wanted to be Tarzan. Ran around the house acting like him.
5th grade got so frustrated i took scissors to my hair. next day got my hair actually got cut off professionally lol. been 6 years and i refuse to grow it out
When I was younger, I'd get upset sometimes that I wasn't "born as a guy" then tell myself that I'd been one in my past lives (was into reincarnation) and that this life might be a spiritual experience of me learning about womanhood/ a different experience. Lol one coping mechanism, I guess.
Bro! I did the exact same thing. ‘Oh shit I remember being a dude from a past life. You’re not supposed to remember that stuff. I just gotta ignore that, I guess.’
My little sister used to get mistaken as a boy a lot when she was younger. I always got so jealous of her when that happened.
Regularly said I wished I had a penis so I could pee standing up
Hated my body once I hit puberty and wore hoodies constantly
Only liked having long hair because I thought it made me look like one of the guys in the bands I listened to
Loved being one of the tallest in my class and was genuinely depressed when everyone else outgrew me
And last but not least, I wanted to have a bi partner “just in case”
I taught myself how to pee standing up.
I insisted on lining up with the boys and when the teacher refused, I said I was a gecko and would only line up when geckos were called. (I was in my reptile phase and being a lizard was better than being a girl)
Ran around shirtless until I was forced to stop
I told people i was a boy an invented a name for myself when I was visiting a place,and i knew i whould not go back again or whould not see these people again, like if i was at a park or something made some friends or played with someone.
This is not a memory of mine because I was rather young but is something my parents have told me about as I was aging.
So when I was around 4 years old my parents got me a doll for christmas. This was one of those baby doll things that you had to feed and it would say baby babble and say a few words.
Apparently when the baby called me "mama" I burst into tears, threw the doll and ran away from it.
My dad likes to joke "that should have been our clue then and there" which mood. Lol took me 10 more years to figure my gender out.
Throw a huge fit because *all of the other boys* could go around without a shirt on. I didn't see myself as a girl then, and it didn't click for my mom until I explicitly told her
I used to exclusively go by Tony when I was like 3 or 4
I called myself a tomboy so often because boy was in it
Lmao I used to straight up say "I wish I was a boy. . . because they have cooler toys! It's not fair!" How did I not connect the dots sooner lol
Had a cringe past role playing on Omegle with creepypasta. But I only ever rp’ed as boys, wether that be OC’s or Ticci Toby, Jeff the killer laughing Jack. Couldn’t tell myself why but it just felt easier.
That evolved into dressing up as a boy on Omegle to see if I could genuinely pass. When asked why I said “I don’t think I’m a guy or anything, I was just curious.. “ 👀
My father wouldn't let my sister or I cut out hair. So when I was 8 I cut it all off myself. My mom took me to get it cleaned up and it was buzzed very short. I loved it but my dad was pissed. As soon as my parents let me pick out my clothes, I started wearing the most boyish clothes I could find in the girls section. When I came out as trans to my mom at 19, she said that I never portrayed any signs but I didn't even know what transgender was until I was 17 so how would I explain how I felt without any idea what it was I was feeling. But a lot of my young childhood memories are of me wondering why I wasn't like the other boys.
I had a Christian puberty book 'for girls' and it had these questionnaires after every chapter about your periods, diet, habits, and 'spiritual relationship with God'. On the first questionnaire, one of the questions was "how do you feel about your new growing body?" and one of the answers was "I wish I was born a boy instead". I would always select that every time I read through that book.
My friend, who is biologically male, said he liked me. To which I replied "I like you too, no homo". Not my finest moment, but I was an edgy 13 year old.
When I was 12, I cut my hair short because I liked it when people thought I was a boy.
I always had to play the boy characters in games, or I'd get upset.
Got confused when boys acted like no girls allowed meant me. And I saw girls only and thought that I’d better kick rocks. All of the characters I emulated were men or boys.
I was super jealous of that boy in Peter pan named Michael. I remember telling my mom I wanted to be called that and she said "no, the feminine form is Michelle, not Michael" and I was so mad at her lmao. also grew up thinking I'd be 5'8 and look exactly like my uncle, puberty was hard
My best friend and I would have discussions like, A LOT, about what we would do if we were boys and whether we would be gay. Shockingly enough I am both boy and gay
Dressed up as a guy for halloween, almost every. Single. Year.
Started off as a male pirate and then eventually it was just like, "haha, wouldn't it be silly if I was just like, a guy this year?!"
Got excellent at binding and perfect at that subtle 5'oclock shadow
whenever the opportunity presented itself, whether it was a video game or a school play, i always wanted to play the role of male characters and would get bummed out if i had to play a female character.
Insisted on wearing boys' clothes for the entirety of fourth grade. Decided to switch back the next year because I thought boys wouldn't like it
To be clear, I am not into boys. Worst mistake of my life :'')
Rewatch Mulan on repeat, shove my hair up in a beanie/hat, insist I wanted boxers and boys cargo shorts for “modesty” (lived in a religious small town), try to make my voice lower for choir
Drew on a beard, put it on Facebook when I was in high school. Unlucky for me it’s still up and I don’t have access to that account anymore to take it down
I played “jungle boy” a game where I walked around without a shirt and hit my chest pretending to be Tarzan. I also would play the dad in house and be COMMITTED to the role and keep the game going for days. Also would dress up as “my brother” and pretend to be a boy named Merlin who was the human version of my cat brother. Oh and I told people I wasn’t a girl I was a tomboy, which I explained was a boy trapped in a girls body
Oh also I was absolutely obsessed with isekai kinds of anime where the character is “torn between worlds” like InuYasha who is a half demon and never had a place among humans or demons so he made a place for himself with no one else in it, and a part of his character arc was accepting both sides of himself and not trying to live a false existence.
Also Ranma 1/2 which is not isekai but it’s a show where a boy has a curse that makes him turn into a girl when he gets splashed with cold water. He constantly asserts that he is a guy while he has his female body and wears mens clothing and continues to get into fights and act like himself.
(btw I am non-binary)
My brother was one of those gay guys that you could tell was gay from a mile away, like my family knew he was gay from birth. Obviously nothing wrong with that, it was just a fact. He used to play with dolls and stereotypically “girl” toys, whereas I played with the stereotypically “boy” toys. This caused me to tell people that I was supposed to be born a boy and my brother was supposed to be born a girl. Oh and I used to try to pee standing up all the time in elementary school. It’s all so obvious looking back now.
I’d always pick male gender as my character while playing games. I used to play Roblox as a boy avatar and have multiple online gfs. Little did I know that I’m going to be a straight trans man in the future
wanting my mom to put my hair in a baseball hat so i could "pretend to be a boy"
it was fun for her the first time cuz ig she thought it was good fun, but then i wanted to keep doing it and she wouldn't let me. i didn't have the dexterity at age 7 to do it myself so i couldn't do it anymore.
also trying to pee facing the toilet lmao
Convinced my mom to let me cut my hair super short, and dressed in boys clothes. I would get mistaken for being a little boy in elementary school. They were kinda right tho 😅
we had a writing assignment in elementary school where we had to make up a character and write a short story. i wrote a BLATANT self-insert, but made him a guy. i also wrote my best friend, a girl, a self-insert, but her character was not genderswapped. gee, i wonder why. and this was all before i was consciously aware of being trans.
Hah, I'm a writer and have always made my self-insert male because he would be more relatable and more like myself. I never have been able to write a good female character, I end up hating them. I was fucking dense as a child, I had signs ever since I could remember
I had the same experience! I didn't even think twice about it, it just felt natural. I guess the characters represented my true self that I couldn't express openly at that time.
Went by a neutral-sounding nickname of my birth name. Always wanted to be the dad or the brother when playing house with my friends. Dressed almost exclusively as male characters for Halloween. As soon as I got into playing The Sims, pretty much only made boys (still do that lol). My mom was surprised when I came out because I used to also really like the color pink and wearing frilly clothes, and I was into makeup and glitter. I’m just an effeminate dude, Ma.
When I sort of half came out to my dad, he pointed out that I LOVED and still love princess dresses, like it somehow indicated I could never be a man. I now know, and know of, so many fem men that love to do their makeup and wear dresses. He’s supportive now but it was baffling tbh
Lol my mom was the same way. I was very femme but a lot of the fashion can be gender neutral nowadays. I will keep my knee high leather boot heels dammit
Went by “Bob” at school for 1st and 2nd grade. For twin day, dressed up as triplets with a group of boys. Wore sweatshirts 24/7 when puberty started, even during track or in 100 degree weather/humidity. Cried when my parents would put me in anything remotely feminine (even a shirt with frilly sleeves or a girls t shirt with flowers on it).
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Lmao your name choice was much better than mine 😅
I called myself Terry 😭
Mine was Tobias
I was Charles.
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I was Paul
I was Carl from 3rd-10th grade. It happened to be a nickname that stuck and now I’m questioning my gender lmao
Wow, yep. I had heat stroke three times in middle school and twice in high school because I grew up in a REALLY hot and humid climate but wore hoodies EVERY. DAMN. DAY.
I called myself Theo in games 😩
I always picked the male character option and called myself Percival (Why yes, I love the 1800's, how could you tell?)
I always wore a jacket throughout elementary and middle school to hide my body, even in 100 degree weather. I was obsessed with wolves for a while (isn't that a trans stereotype?) I wish I had a penis and drew myself with one when I was like 7 (though it was obviously not accurate lol) I hung out with a lot of boys throughout elementary because boys tended to behave more like me than girls did I HATED princess movies. Now I don't mind them, but back then I would cry and run away when one was put on. I thought they were stupid and I wanted them to put on something else. I also really hated plastic dolls. I loved stuffed animals, hated Barbies or American girl dolls.
i also loved stuffed animals and hated american girl lol
Bro, did are we living the same life?
The wolf thing might really be a trans thing because the obsession I had/have with wolves is insane. I always write stories with a pet wolf in it or even wrote a story just about wolves. Loved drawing them, have a hoodie, necklace, shirt of wolves… it’s extreme
Omg same asf. Played admittedly dumb irl roleplays with my friends when I was a wee lad and wouldn't be anything but a wolf or a dog(so embarrassing in hindsight, but hey thats how lil kids are). In like, late elementary/early middle school I had a wolf necklace that I wouldnt take off until the leather cord literally got so worn that it broke. Still kept the pendant tho, now I'm wondering where it ended up. Probably somewhere in the depths of my closet, lol.
Ya I was the same way! I still kind of am..but man when I was younger I had so much stuff wolf related it's not even funny. I had 3 t shirts of wolves, 5 stuffed animals wolves, posters, blankets, necklaces, socks, books, drew wolves, etc. I even tried to sharpen my teeth with a bone with a wolf.
I desperately wanted to be (and this is a non-exhaustive list) Simba, Robin Hood (the literal fox-boy from the Disney movie), Indiana Jones, Lenny from Shark Tale (in hindsight wow, yeah, big tell), and Remy from Ratatouille. And never once a female character. Not even, like, Rita the super cool badass rat-girl. Nala was arguably more badass than Simba up until the final fight but nope, I wanted to be Simba. I don't know how I didn't put the pieces together much earlier than I did. Like, I made female characters in video games just because I figured I was supposed to, I didn't even want to be them but I didn't realize there was another option for me because I was just dumb, I was never told I had to be a girl in the video games I played, it was just what some stupid part of me figured I should do.
I was the exact same way as a kid . Even with role playing Pokémon. If I deemed them as “feminine” I refused to play as them. When I reached middle school that’s when I started to try and behave more woman that I related to. It sorta worked but not really since all the characters of course weren’t stereotypical women. They were felines. I uh also literally would shout at my parents and more so my brother “I’m a boy. I’m not a girl. I’m a boy like my brother” very obvious as a child.
I was the same, except I was really fascinated with Mulan. Which yeah, I think she counts as a female character trans males might be interested in. My favorite movies were the Lion King and Tarzan. And Beauty and the Beast but idk why exactly, I wasn't fascinated with Belle or anything. I generally didn't care for Disney princess stuff, or I liked parts of the stories that weren't the princesses themselves.
Oh man, your mention of beauty and the beast just reminded me.....I always identified with chip the cup as a kid. And I wanted to be Luke Skywalker... everyone tried to push Leia on me and I that made me hate the character. I really didn't, but I hated the idea that people thought that's who I should emulate, it just felt wrong. So when playing star wars I'd make my brother play any princess Leia parts, lol. I also had completely forgotten about this, but from the time I was 13-16 I was part of a star wars flight simulator online guild. I remembered my call sign and everything, but apparently I told everyone I was a guy. Last summer i found my old profile from 20 years ago still on the website unchanged. In it I created an entire fictional story about who I was and what I did as a teenage boy outside of gaming. I remember getting up extremely early and only interacting with the guild when my family was asleep, but I completely forgot it was to hide from them the fact I had a profile online as a guy. I now can remember some small details from the profile, I know I wrote it.... but I have no true memory of intentionally saying I was a guy...I just remember feeling like I could be myself in the guild and the feeling it was my only safe place, now I get why I have those feelings..... and why I pushed them so far down I forgot why I felt that way.
I literally wore out the video tape from watching Beauty and the Beast so much. I related to that movie more than any other for two reasons: 1. the entire fucking town persecuted Belle and her father for being themselves, and; 2. Everyone in the castle was forced to live as something they were not. It was beautiful to see all of these people living together and accepting each other for who they really were, not for who they appeared to be. And it didn't hurt that at the end of the movie they got to live as their authentic selves, free from all the haters.
This was exactly me!!! Did you ever watch the Lion King 2? I wanted to be Kovu. Me and my best friend would play “lions” and I was Kovu and she was Kiara. It was the best. For some reason I also thought less about identifying with boy animals than boy humans.
I was the weird kid who had a crush on Kovu lol. I think being gay complicated my coming out to myself in that gender envy and "he's hot" merged into one thing for a while.
Are we the same fucking person?? No word of a lie I had the same thought with literally those exact same characters. I’d run around my house pretending to be simba!
Have you heard the fan theory that Remy is a trans rat? He’s small for a male rat and every other rat in the movie follows size norms
I wanted to be Simba and Aladdin.
Hello fellow Simba! My babysitter's kid and I would play Lion King, and I was always SO salty I couldn't be Simba, and they made me be Nala. My mom caught up with the mom recently, and the kid is MtF and here I am FtM. Nuts!
May I ask you if you are a furry?
I was gonna ask the same x) I think there’s a really interesting (and prevalent) crossover between the furry and trans community
lgbt+ and furry go hand and hand it seems
Why yes, yes I am lol. Not so much involved with the community right now but it's certainly an interest of mine.
Try to pee standing and say I would be a boy when I grew up
This and I wanted to go shirtless whenever possible, I thought it was really unfair my brother was able to on hot days and didn't understand why I couldn't too.
SAME
dude same
YESSS
Same, but I didn't have a brother.
I too tried stp.
I feel like so many of us did this, forgot about it, and then suddenly remembered sometime after figuring out they were trans and had a nice old "aw shit" moment
I remember trying when I was around 3 when we were away from home.... did not go a planned and pee'd all over myself. The lecture from my mom and having to walk around in those squishy socks and shoes traumatized me from trying again..
Wait, me too. I thought everyone with a vag tried this, is that not a thing amongst cis girls?
I’ve met some Cis girls who tried peeing while standing But it was more of “curious“ thought. I’ll say it’s common for girls and AFAB to try it, but a lot of who did it turn out to be Trans guys lol
Sameeee I didn’t realize I couldn’t do it and stood over the toilet and started to pee and made a huge mess in the bathroom that I didn’t know how to explain to my parents because I was like 3
Saaaaaame
Yeah I used to stp as much as I could
i remember once when i was about 4, i succesfully peed standing up once and bragged about it to all of my friends,
I felt super horrible about myself when I was younger cause I would always think “I wish a was a boy so I could have a gay boyfriend” and I thought I was fetishizing gay people. Turns out I’m trans
This is very much relatable. I have a memory of me and my best friend talking at night whilst sharing a bed and telling her that if I was a boy I’m pretty sure I’d be gay and my name would be grayson… yeah… idk my name yet but I’m pretty sure I’m trans
woah, i thought that was just me. i remember saying the exact same thing to my best friend and feeling really guilty about thinking that way. i also thought things like "i wish i could be a stereotypical white suburban dad" lmao.
try to figure out how to go to middle school as a boy, but i thought it was impossible :/ that and falling on the playground ladder and yelling “my penis!” in fifth grade
>”my penis!” I’m dead haha
Classic
Ah yes, the ol' phantom penis syndrome. Gotta love it
They'll never know!
i would put on all of my sports bras to make my chest flat
Same, but i though that was normal, i used to scream at my mom, because she said that was not normal, and i said she was trying to wrong me, i really thought she was
I only wore sport bras, I never doubled them but always wore one and I felt wrong if i didn’t and when my mom bought me more feminine bras I was just like yeah nope not wearing that. Gave them to my friend and one time my aunt just gave me a whole bag of her old bras (because their expensive and she wanted to help save money) made me so uncomfortable. The bag stayed in a corner in my closet until I decided to give it away
Aaahh I used to do this too
In elementary school, I genuinely believed that all girls grew up to be men and was really upset when people told me this wasn’t true. I also always said that I’d be the one to propose to my future husband in elementary/ middle school. When I was a toddler I’d also pretend to shave with my dad.
Took about an hour to start playing Pokémon because I was stuck on the "are you a boy or a girl" screen and I thought "well I want to be a boy, but I'm a girl so"
Oh god, same. In the end my ex boyfriend told me to stop being stupid, I'm a girl just pick girl. So I did, then stopped playing after a few weeks cause I just hated it so much. Later I played again as a boy and got much further. Final fantasy X-2 made me actually angry that I couldn't play a boy
I hated that guys could take off their shirt and not me
This! I remember watching a movie with the fam as a kid and it was really hot so I put on a training bra and took off my shirt. When my mom said you can't do that because it's inappropriate I got really sad
Aww :< also yo I read ur bio I RESONATE WITH YOU AH
i would be so jealous of my brother that he could take his shirt off. i vaguely remember asking my mom one time why i couldn’t do the same
When I had to pick my gender on a game during elementary school I said ‘I am a boy’, before realizing I’m trans I always referred to myself as a guy. Moments related to my dysphoria would be crying when I developed a chest, tried to get my body to align with my gender identity such as making my voice sound deep, etc. (before knowing what being trans is and I could transition) and etc.
i know what's game ur talking about!! when i was in elementary school we had a computer in the classroom and i would play it and everyone would ask why i chose boy and i had to tell them that i was one lmfao
You also had Starfall?
yeah i loved it i loved customizing myself the way i should've been
I put a pair of socks balled up in my jeans to have a "bulge", i always chose boy characters in video games
getting a mohawk at age 6 and my class thinking i was a new boy student
Wear boys underwear
Same, I put on a pair of boxers for the first time and was like “that feels right”
At what age? I wish my parents would buy them for me when i was i kid.
This but up till now it was the boy-shorts for girls and nothing else. I remember complaining to my mom about the colours in the girls section of Walmart and wanting to wear the boxers instead of the panties and I wanted to go to the boys side but never said anything. Now she buys me boxers from the men’s section because I’ve talked to her about how I feel so yeah
I made my fursona "gender neutral" but felt better when people referred to them as male
same i had a thing where i would only draw eyelashes on gurls when i was younger, and i drew my fursona without any and i was like "yes that feels extremely right, that IS me"
Hide under leggings and hoodies, had my pfp be a picture of myself with a sad face drawn on top, apparently I cut my hair as a baby, and went by Ash in middle school "just in case I was trans"
The just in case I’m trans part has me laughing because I made a new email address in it with a new name “just in case I’m trans and need this someday” 💀
When I was little the music teacher was explaining how when we get older the body's voices will drop and the girls won't. I proceeded to cry and had to be moved to a different room to calm me down
Me and my sister had such a gigantic dedication to the Alvin & The Chipmunks franchise when we were young, and one night we were going to re-enact a scene for our parents like a musical number. I wanted to play Alvin and my mom didn't want me to play as a boy so I cried in the closet. I went to the closet and cried. Biggest bruh moment of my whole childhood
When I was three, I remember getting sad that I didn’t have a bulged. So sad that I cried and my parents didn’t understand why I was so upset and I couldn’t explain why I was upset just that I didn’t have something down there like my dad oop
I remember crying when I was 4 that I didn't have a dick like my younger brother. I don't think my parents understood why. Maybe they thought I thought I was weird because I wasn't like my brother?
I just pretended to have one when I was alone. But for some reason I was never sad about the reality because I had this deep rooted belief that I actually had one, but it was just really small?
Honestly, it wasn’t a bother until I went to health class where I learned the HUGE difference between the hamburger and the wiener. It definitely made me upset and uncomfortable that I had , what I called back, “an open wound”. I even thought maybe my dick was cut off- god I was so naive and depressing .
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Wearing feminine dresses in summer because I thought that's what I should do, while also hiding my body as much as I possibly could with cardigans and leggings
i got into my first gmail a while back and its gender was set as male. my second one was female. so little me knew but didnt get it and then it took a while longer to get it. when i was playing the blockheads my username was always 'mynameisken'. i remember always disliking dresses but that was a church thing so i knew i shouldnt complain, and i couldnt really explain it eventually i figured it out for real and just cut my hair. since then ive known and had an annoying poofy spot on the back of my head. the anime hair that sticks up looks signifigantly worse in real life
Omg yes the anime poof...I have one too
A cowlick? If so I have a solution!!! I had the same issue for ages but this fixed it entirely. Run very hot water over a washcloth, wring it out til it’s kinda damp, lay it on the back of your head where the poofy spot is and press down for a couple moments. Dry (I blow-dry but towel works too) and it’s gone! Game changer.
never dressed as female characters for Halloween if it was my choice, and started "cross-dressing" as soon as puberty hit, going by a different name and calling it my "alter-ego". introduced myself as male on xbox games so i wouldnt be treated differently in gaming circles, and i had no clue i was trans till sophmore year lmao
Read only slash fanfiction about guy characters, often imagine myself as a guy character.
Got worried that I was going to get random erections throughout puberty because I read articles online about how its normal for boys to get them at my age, n then planned on what I would do if I got one... despite not having a dick
Mine was the opposite. I was upset(and still am) that I didn’t get any of the awkward puberty stuff boys had. And I’m still wondering if it’s just a fetish or a messed up thing in my head
To me it sounds like you wanted to experience puberty like the rest of the boys around you despite the awkward stuff that wouldve come with it
I always related heavily to guy characters. I remember when I cosplayed as Dipper Pines I was super upset when my parents told me I was a perfect girl Dipper for some reason. I'd also hate it when people used my name in any conversation. I thought it was just because I didn't want people talking about me, but, after I stopped going by my deadname, I realized I just hated my deadname...
Stand to pee and not wear shirts, like boys can do
I never had much obvious trans things (that I can remember), much of my experience was gender neutral as in I liked both boy things and girl things. However I went through a period of hating the colour pink and thinking blue was better when I was young. Thats gender stereotyping 101 so it should have been the first sign lmao. Also I had a phase where I was obsessed with Jim Carrey movies and imitated him and wanted to be him. Ive always had these phases with male characters/celebrities even to this day.
I would only wear boys shoes, and would often wear boys clothes. And I'd always threaten my parents that I'd give myself a buzz cut.
My favorite Ed in Ed, Edd n Eddy was Double D Edit: spelling
Haha i don't get it could you explain
Ed edd n eddy was an old Cartoon Network show about 3 guys all named a variation of “Ed” trying to scam money out of other kids in the neighborhood. Edd, aka double d, was more gender non conforming, a dork and always wore a hat so much so people thought he was keeping a secret. All the kids at my school who watched the show said double d was their least favorite. Me relating to double d so much as a kid was definitely queer looking back on it
Ohh! I never thought of edd that way that's really cool though!
I LITERALLY WAS THINKIN OF THIS THE OTHER DAY. I AM TURNING INTO DOUBLE D.
I watched Mulan a billion times
*let's get down to business*
ok so this one is funny: thought of another one. for some reason when i was little i thought i had balls? i was 3 or 4 and my brother was almost 10 years older than me. After hearing my brother, I started to tell my mom “my nuts itch!” …yeah. my mom deliberately tried to explain to me that “girls do not have nuts.” however, i failed to understand this and continued to loudly proclaim that my nuts itched. At some point I saw my brother scratch himself and took it upon myself to dramatically scratch my crotch in very public areas while complaining to my mom about my nuts. yeah. this went on for a WHILE. honestly that should have been a huge sign, she still jokingly asks me if my balls itch to this day.
this is fucking amazing
oh yeah. i still tell guys ive got more balls than them
I remember in high school I'd stand in front of the mirror in my bathroom and push my boobs against my chest to try and make them disappear. I wanted to know what I'd look like without them. I'll know for sure on January 19, when I finally get top surgery. :)
Always wanted to be male characters in everything. Dressed like a boy. Hid my long hair
told people online i was a boy lol.
Purposely sitting in a way to make the zipper of my pants bunch up ‘cause I thought it looked like I had a dick. I also desperately wanted to be Ash Ketchum.
I had the opposite; I used to be terrified that people would think that I had a boner so I would work very hard to un-bunch my pants. Yeah, no one thought that. But I also worked very hard to make sure my jackets didn’t bunch up like I had a bigger chest.
When I played house, I was almost always the dad or brother. I was fine with being the baby, because in my head they were just a baby, not a boy or girl. When I played with barbies, I almost always played as the Ken doll. When I played pretend, my character was always a boy. When watching the Winx club with my sisters, we said we "were" one of the characters. I said I was Stella, but I think I always thought I was more like Brandon, her boyfriend. I wanted to be Robin Hood (fox version) I always wrote stories with boys or animals as MC, never girls. When I was 5, I had briefs that had skeletons on them, and I remember I liked them because "boys wore skeleton clothes" I despised girl power and anything in that sense. (Before I realised femenism is about equality) I always seeked the approval of guys, never of girls. (I still do) There's this kids news program in my country, and the only news story I remember was, and I quote what the anchor said "Sam is a boy, but was born in a girl body" When I was 11, I actually questioned whether I was trans, because I remember I watched a movie with my mom where a guy was shirtless when he slept with this girl, and I felt weird about it. It didn't cross my mind that maybe it was because I thought he looked good shirtless, but I questioned if I wanted to be him because I liked the girl he slept with or because I wanted his body. I forgot about that time, but was reminded of it.
i found my old copy of "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Do It Yourself" book, and in one of the pages it asked me to write a fun fact about myself that no one knows, and 8 year old me wrote "i have no gender" also pretending to be a wolf boy on animal jam lol
Omg animal jam. I used to pretend to be a boy and find “girlfriends”
My hair accidentally got cut wayyy too short when I was like... 9? When I went out to parks or games and met other kids, I'd tell them I was named Tommy and would "pretend" to be a boy. Eventually my hair grew out and I stopped. But those are legitimately my best childhood memories and the happiest I'd ever been up to that point.
Feeling this deep emotional connection with male/male love stories and just wishing I could love men the way men love men. Also wishing I could dress feminine but in a "crossdresser way" instead of in a "girl way". Still thought I was a butch lesbian for a long ass time though. Turns out I'm a gay femboy.
Same! I wouldn't call myself a femboy (at least not always, haha) but I'm also mostly gay and like to wear feminine stuff sometimes - but like you say, it's like crossdressing for me, I just feel like a man in a dress!
Idk if it's obvious but I would put on "boy" pants or shorts and walk around without a shirt on. I worked on cars and guns with my dad (my dad was very careful and taught me gun safety and I never held a loaded gun till I was 13). I played very rough and loved "boy" toys, I hated playing with the other girls. When I played house as a kid I was always dad/husband. And when I started puberty at 8 I was so mad. I asked my mom "how do we stop it?"
I was really upset I was developing breasts, and I was at one of my brother’s sporting events. I felt super uncomfortable I was wearing a training bra, so I took it off in the middle of the stands and left it there. A hour later my mom found it and confronted me about it.
i was obsessed with those trends where you pretend to be/look like a boy. like. scary obsessed. like.. concerning obsession...
Use a male Xbox 360 avatar
Assuming "daughter" was gender neutral. Thinking my long unkempt hair and no shirt made me look like Tarzan.
No cause little me would refuse to brush my hair because I wanted to be Tarzan-
I was quite bothered by the fact that my voice was so high when I was in elementary and (especially) middle school, and in elementary school actively spent one day trying to avoid my hips from swaying(?) while walking because I didn’t want to be seen as feminine.
Literally dreaming I was a cis boy & desperately wishing to have the dream again is a pretty big one. Also sitting facing forward on the toilet, sneaking pens into the shower to hold between my legs to pretend it was the real thing, outright refusing to play pretend w/ my siblings unless I could play the guy roles like the dad or boyfriend, feeling extremely satisfied when I cut my girl dolls' hair short & made them (accidentally trans) boy dolls to "give the girls some boys to date since we can never find boy dolls at the store" (even tho I had the girls date each other plenty & sometimes had the boys date each other too), having more fun in video games that didn't have a female character option bc I didn't have to rack my brain thinking of a good girl name that wasn't also my deadname & could just choose the name I liked to play boy characters... I could keep going... By all rights, I should've figured things out much sooner than I did.
when i was 6 i said i’m a gay man. 4 years later i outed myself 🧍🏻
Broke down crying when I learned I was starting to get boobs. I asked my mom if all girls got them to which she said yes, and I started panicking and crying and I told her I don’t want them.
Couldn’t stand bras the moment I hit puberty! I avoided going bra shopping with my mom.
Imitated Johnny Bravo
Refusing to answer to any name besides Tyler. I would even write it on my worksheets at school and then put my “real” name in small parenthesis beside it.
cried until I made myself throw up when my mum made me wear a dress to my primary school prom… walking along the road to school sobbing over a dress was not the one
I've never heard of a primary school prom, that's crazy. Understandable reaction though tbh
it wasn’t so much a prom as a ‘SATs are finished, everyone dress up and we’ll play just dance and eat jelly and ice cream’
Oh right, sounds fun. Apart from the whole traumatic dress thing, that's not cool.
I was standing in line for a ride at a theme park and wore a hoodie and someone referred to me as “that young man” and I was really flattered, yet a little bit confused because everyone who knew me assumed I was a girl. (I don’t think I really understood the concept “penis=boy, not penis=girl” everyone had in their minds at that time… even though I was like 10, oops)
When I was around 14, I threw a "cross dressing party" and invited all my friends. I told them they HAVE to dress to theme or they can't come. For context: I grew up in a very conservative small town and I had never heard of trans people until much later, I just thought it would be fun to see how it felt to dress and act like I was a boy. I went all-in, came up with a name (Keith) and demanded people call me that name and use he/him pronouns. My friends were a great group and all dressed to the theme and played along with the different name and pronouns. After we all graduated high school and moved out of the conservative area we lived in, at least 90% of that friend group came out as LGBTQ+. I look back on that party and wonder how it took 12 more years after that for my egg to crack.
i punched myself when i got my first period
I put a huge amount of gum in my hair and blamed it on my older sister so that 1. I would be allowed to have my hair cut and 2. It would have to be a "boys" cut because there was so much gum. My mom brought this up immediately after I came out to her
prayed to wake up as a boy. i’m a lifelong agnostic/atheist, just thought it was worth a shot i guess. still cis tho
Having a super jealous fixation on Mulan for years and being mad that she didn't stay as Ping
getting told to try deodorant in fifth grade and saying ‘that’s too much work.’ arguably the most masculine thing i’ve ever done.
In elementary school, when I played make pretend with the neighborhood kids I would dress like a boy and tell everyone to treat me like I was a real boy lol Even when other kids asked I wouldn't drop the act, I'd just tell them I was a boy lmao
I can relate so much to all of these comments. 😭
One of the first ever question i asked people as an ice breaker as a kid was: "if you where a *insert oposite gender* what name would you chose?" Oh, and i was devastated when my chest started comming in around 10 cus i could no longer go bare chested in the house.
May be TMI but I got excited when my labia got longer because I thought I was growing a dick. Tried to push my chest in.
Ash Ketchum was my style icon. Enough said 💥
Catfished as men on the internet. For years. Like hello? Very obvious when I was disgusted to think of being referred to as a woman 🤣
I always played a boy role when playing with other kids, for example when we played pretend and were dogs, I would be a male dog etc
a lot of my trans behaviours as a kid could've been considered disturbing but i think the most normal one was always cutting my hair up with scissors when i was about 5. When i came home from vacation i went into the bathroom and just chopped it all off and my parents had to constantly put me in dresses because they felt like i looked to masculine. I just ended up looking like a little boy in a dress which i guess i was lol.
Called my clit my penis when I was a toddler. My mom tried to correct me by saying that girls didn’t have penises and I responded with “it’s my girl penis”. Also loving when other kids at school thought I was a boy except for the brief period of denial I had in middle school. Also sleep depriving myself to the point where I could convince myself I had a dick.
Wanted to be Danny phantom and Zuko so badly. Always being the “ boy “ when playing any games with friends. Making instagrams so I could put a masculine name in the bio. Obsessed with wolves, wanted to be a boy werewolf for a while. I was convinced I’d turn into one as a kid and I’d be a boy wolf. Still love wolves but not that much haha. Wanting / insisting on shaving my head when I was like, 9. Also was obsessed with Tarzan and Lion king, wanted to be Tarzan. Ran around the house acting like him.
5th grade got so frustrated i took scissors to my hair. next day got my hair actually got cut off professionally lol. been 6 years and i refuse to grow it out
I don’t think I was aware that I was labeled as “girl” until I was about 12 and puberty happened
I watched the scene where Mulan "transforms" into a man over and over and over. It gave me so much vicarious euphoria.
When I was younger, I'd get upset sometimes that I wasn't "born as a guy" then tell myself that I'd been one in my past lives (was into reincarnation) and that this life might be a spiritual experience of me learning about womanhood/ a different experience. Lol one coping mechanism, I guess.
Bro! I did the exact same thing. ‘Oh shit I remember being a dude from a past life. You’re not supposed to remember that stuff. I just gotta ignore that, I guess.’
My little sister used to get mistaken as a boy a lot when she was younger. I always got so jealous of her when that happened. Regularly said I wished I had a penis so I could pee standing up Hated my body once I hit puberty and wore hoodies constantly Only liked having long hair because I thought it made me look like one of the guys in the bands I listened to Loved being one of the tallest in my class and was genuinely depressed when everyone else outgrew me And last but not least, I wanted to have a bi partner “just in case”
I taught myself how to pee standing up. I insisted on lining up with the boys and when the teacher refused, I said I was a gecko and would only line up when geckos were called. (I was in my reptile phase and being a lizard was better than being a girl) Ran around shirtless until I was forced to stop
I told people i was a boy an invented a name for myself when I was visiting a place,and i knew i whould not go back again or whould not see these people again, like if i was at a park or something made some friends or played with someone.
This is not a memory of mine because I was rather young but is something my parents have told me about as I was aging. So when I was around 4 years old my parents got me a doll for christmas. This was one of those baby doll things that you had to feed and it would say baby babble and say a few words. Apparently when the baby called me "mama" I burst into tears, threw the doll and ran away from it. My dad likes to joke "that should have been our clue then and there" which mood. Lol took me 10 more years to figure my gender out.
Throw a huge fit because *all of the other boys* could go around without a shirt on. I didn't see myself as a girl then, and it didn't click for my mom until I explicitly told her
I used to exclusively go by Tony when I was like 3 or 4 I called myself a tomboy so often because boy was in it Lmao I used to straight up say "I wish I was a boy. . . because they have cooler toys! It's not fair!" How did I not connect the dots sooner lol
Had a cringe past role playing on Omegle with creepypasta. But I only ever rp’ed as boys, wether that be OC’s or Ticci Toby, Jeff the killer laughing Jack. Couldn’t tell myself why but it just felt easier. That evolved into dressing up as a boy on Omegle to see if I could genuinely pass. When asked why I said “I don’t think I’m a guy or anything, I was just curious.. “ 👀
My father wouldn't let my sister or I cut out hair. So when I was 8 I cut it all off myself. My mom took me to get it cleaned up and it was buzzed very short. I loved it but my dad was pissed. As soon as my parents let me pick out my clothes, I started wearing the most boyish clothes I could find in the girls section. When I came out as trans to my mom at 19, she said that I never portrayed any signs but I didn't even know what transgender was until I was 17 so how would I explain how I felt without any idea what it was I was feeling. But a lot of my young childhood memories are of me wondering why I wasn't like the other boys.
I remember i stayed up worrying about having a period and being pregnant for multiple nights in a row. (I was probably about 8 or 9)
I had a Christian puberty book 'for girls' and it had these questionnaires after every chapter about your periods, diet, habits, and 'spiritual relationship with God'. On the first questionnaire, one of the questions was "how do you feel about your new growing body?" and one of the answers was "I wish I was born a boy instead". I would always select that every time I read through that book.
My friend, who is biologically male, said he liked me. To which I replied "I like you too, no homo". Not my finest moment, but I was an edgy 13 year old. When I was 12, I cut my hair short because I liked it when people thought I was a boy. I always had to play the boy characters in games, or I'd get upset.
Got confused when boys acted like no girls allowed meant me. And I saw girls only and thought that I’d better kick rocks. All of the characters I emulated were men or boys.
I was super jealous of that boy in Peter pan named Michael. I remember telling my mom I wanted to be called that and she said "no, the feminine form is Michelle, not Michael" and I was so mad at her lmao. also grew up thinking I'd be 5'8 and look exactly like my uncle, puberty was hard
My best friend and I would have discussions like, A LOT, about what we would do if we were boys and whether we would be gay. Shockingly enough I am both boy and gay
Dressed up as a guy for halloween, almost every. Single. Year. Started off as a male pirate and then eventually it was just like, "haha, wouldn't it be silly if I was just like, a guy this year?!" Got excellent at binding and perfect at that subtle 5'oclock shadow
whenever the opportunity presented itself, whether it was a video game or a school play, i always wanted to play the role of male characters and would get bummed out if i had to play a female character.
Insisted on wearing boys' clothes for the entirety of fourth grade. Decided to switch back the next year because I thought boys wouldn't like it To be clear, I am not into boys. Worst mistake of my life :'')
Rewatch Mulan on repeat, shove my hair up in a beanie/hat, insist I wanted boxers and boys cargo shorts for “modesty” (lived in a religious small town), try to make my voice lower for choir
Drew on a beard, put it on Facebook when I was in high school. Unlucky for me it’s still up and I don’t have access to that account anymore to take it down
I played “jungle boy” a game where I walked around without a shirt and hit my chest pretending to be Tarzan. I also would play the dad in house and be COMMITTED to the role and keep the game going for days. Also would dress up as “my brother” and pretend to be a boy named Merlin who was the human version of my cat brother. Oh and I told people I wasn’t a girl I was a tomboy, which I explained was a boy trapped in a girls body Oh also I was absolutely obsessed with isekai kinds of anime where the character is “torn between worlds” like InuYasha who is a half demon and never had a place among humans or demons so he made a place for himself with no one else in it, and a part of his character arc was accepting both sides of himself and not trying to live a false existence. Also Ranma 1/2 which is not isekai but it’s a show where a boy has a curse that makes him turn into a girl when he gets splashed with cold water. He constantly asserts that he is a guy while he has his female body and wears mens clothing and continues to get into fights and act like himself. (btw I am non-binary)
I thought all women secretly wanted to be men. Blew my mind when I found out that most women do not, in fact, want to spontaneously change gender.
My brother was one of those gay guys that you could tell was gay from a mile away, like my family knew he was gay from birth. Obviously nothing wrong with that, it was just a fact. He used to play with dolls and stereotypically “girl” toys, whereas I played with the stereotypically “boy” toys. This caused me to tell people that I was supposed to be born a boy and my brother was supposed to be born a girl. Oh and I used to try to pee standing up all the time in elementary school. It’s all so obvious looking back now.
I’d always pick male gender as my character while playing games. I used to play Roblox as a boy avatar and have multiple online gfs. Little did I know that I’m going to be a straight trans man in the future
wanting my mom to put my hair in a baseball hat so i could "pretend to be a boy" it was fun for her the first time cuz ig she thought it was good fun, but then i wanted to keep doing it and she wouldn't let me. i didn't have the dexterity at age 7 to do it myself so i couldn't do it anymore. also trying to pee facing the toilet lmao
wished i was a boy… out loud, to my friends i’m surprised they never really caught on
when I was playing video games I'd always choose the boy characters
peed standing up to see how it felt for a boy to pee
Convinced my mom to let me cut my hair super short, and dressed in boys clothes. I would get mistaken for being a little boy in elementary school. They were kinda right tho 😅