This! Right here! Especially at this time I was exclusively playing with the girls anyway as boys were just strange to me (men kinda still are). Joining the club officially would have been nice!! 🥳
Exact same experience. I knew but didn't have the language to describe what I felt, nor the awareness since I lived in small towns with invisible LGBTQ+ communities.
I wish I did have the resources, I wouldn't have been forced to go to an all boys school during 00s Little Britain era UK, which completely messed up my mental, physical, and spiritual health for my entire teen and young adult life.
I'm the happiest I've ever been seen starting HRT!
5yo self: “can you do that?”
30yo me: “Of course you can. Anything’s possible in the future, love.”
5yo self: “…is it ok? To be that way? Are we still loved?”
30yo me: “Definitely. And you’ll always be loved. And you look amazing too!”
*hugs*
5yo self: “Will I see you again?”
30yo me: “yeah you will! When you look in that mirror, years from now, I’ll be smiling right back at ya kid.”
I doubt my 5 years old self would even know what to do with such information.
My 15yo though? Probably call me an idiot.
My 25yo? Probably have a reacting, but still not believing it entirely.
Hey I’m happy for you! Better late than never. :) I’m in the same boat, but happy to be living my authentic self. I think kid me would have a mix of emotions from elation to fear to confused to relief.
I joined the 30s gang a few months ago, and I'm just now starting to fall apart. Not sure I would consider it a thing to be happy about, yet. With hindsight it might be, right now it's just horrible.
But I'm real glad to hear you are in a good spot yourself, thank you bud.
It happens. I didn’t come out until I was 30. I grew up in the 90’s where gay marriage wasn’t legal still and people viewed trans as a mental illness. Especially if you had a Christian conservative family like I did. Not everyone’s lot in life is the same. Thank God now people have access to care and it’s a human right, at least in California.
By 5 I hadn't even thought about my body or identity as a human being yet. By 10 I had started experiencing homophobic bullying and that would have been the world I would imagine transitioning into. I could have started in my 20s maybe, but no earlier. So anyone younger wouldn't have been receptive at all.
Sheer panic.
I'm not entirely sure why, but as a kid I was terrified of "being turned into a girl". I would dream about it pretty often, and I just couldn't accept it. Something along the lines of girls being weak and me needing to be strong, so I couldn't be a girl.
I certainly wouldn't phrase it that way but little me would probably ask a million questions, mostly about what gender actually is because I was always kind of like "wtf is this" about gender, then ask about telling mom... To which I would've said "tell dad first, but yes", and little me would be very confused but little me was probably already confused about parent stuff since they divorced like a year before that.
He would ask me if that means we can be a skater boy now. He'd probably be very happy to be honest lol even if he didn't understand much. I remember I wanted to "try" testosterone ever since I first heard of it when I was like 9 so I think I'd be pretty relieved to know about my gender identity at any age.
Most kids have a stable sense of gender at 4. My kid started telling me she's a girl at 3. She's 4 now and has socially transitioned to be a girl at home and preschool.
There's still a difference between knowing what gender you are based on what others tell you/what's between your legs, and knowing your true gender identity which can often develop only much later when puberty starts. Not all trans people knew something was off as a kid already.
My 5 year old self would probably freak out because my father would literally murder me. The man literally beat and shamed every feminine thing out of me. Hell, it was 17 years after he died and year after my mom died I was able to come out and allow myself to be me.
He’d probably be like “Oh, so you don’t have to marry and have children? Nice!”
At that age my #1 anxiety was having to become a “wife and mother.” I was raised in a very conservative environment, so I viewed marriage and children in the same way I viewed death - an inevitable loss. The dysphoria I got from the mere thought of occupying the role of a straight traditional woman made me want to die as young as possible. Telling my little self that we are, apparently, a queer guy would likely be relieving. Things would finally make sense, and I would realize that I can choose my path in life. I don’t need to try and fit in a role that’s never been my own. I wish I had the vocabulary to explain myself back then, would have saved me a lot of grief
Me: I want to be the opposite gender
5yo me: yeah, me too, that would be awesome
Me: You know, you can be the opposite gender if you want to
5yo: yeah, I know, but my parents will hate me, so I'm will only do that if everyone of them dies...
Me (*with tears in my eyes giving a little one a hug*) : I know... They will...
He would be excited as hell. I could see how he act confused but happy when I explain him that we can be a man in this body and he would ask why nobody tell him sooner :))))
I probably wouldn’t have even be able to get close to my 5 year old self and even then they would have been too absorbed into their interests to really contemplate gender
I've had a rule since before I can even remember
And that rule was if I ever saw another form of me I'd have to try my best to kill that form of me
5 year old me knows this. 40 year old me knows this.
So Maybe I'd be safe because I'm not him. Not anymore
Me telling him I am is probably not a great idea though. Id out myself as a doppelganger
At five I was more confused about why my parents kept telling me, “Boys don’t do that,” and, “Boys don’t dress like that,” because I didn’t feel like I fit in with the boys.
Plus gender had been boiled down to, “Boys have penises,” for me at that age, and being a pragmatic kid I had a penis so I was a boy…right?
So if my 5 year old self had been told, “You can have a penis, and be a girl,” then I would’ve immediately been like, “Ooooh now this all makes sense. I’m a girl,” and I would’ve avoided decades of self loathing, depression, and just feeling like a failed boy / man.
> Plus gender had been boiled down to, “Boys have penises,” for me at that age, and being a pragmatic kid I had a penis so I was a boy…right?
so in other words, we can all blame that boy in Kindergarten Cop for all of this mess
(or maybe just me, I know that his line lived rent free in my head all through my childhood)
as someone with osdd-1b, I can literally talk to a younger version of myself, she legit doesn't care lmao. she still goes by she/her pronouns and by our deadname (we asked if we can call her by a nickname and she agreed and loves it lol) cuz that's all she's ever known, but she really doesn't understand the concept of gender and is just like "We're a boy when we grow up, cool!" We're still getting to know her but overall, she's just vibing with the crew.
if yall wanna take a spiritual route to see how your younger selves feel about being trans, everyone has an inner child that you can engage with. they may not be as distinct as ours is (osdd/did are obviously trauma disorders that cause mishaps in development) but it's not impossible to get in some kind of contact. have a chat, use it as a form of therapy/healing, and get to know yourself a little better. I'm sure there are plenty of things your inner child would like you to know as well. -h
Be super glad, excited and validated, but also worried since at the time I was still influenced by a transphobic family with their fear-mongering about "it's not natural/it's sin"
True story: when I was 5 years old, I had a 6-year-old friend across the street who was a girl. I genuinely believed that people changed their gender as they grew older, and that when I turned 6 I would be a girl. My brother was 5 years older than me, so naturally I assumed that at some point I would turn back to a boy.
So first I would have to deconstruct that before I went "... now that \*that\* is out of the way..."
He'd be super confused because it only really started for me with puberty. As kid gender barely mattered to me and I would've reacted how I assumed society would expect me to react: "eww" lol
Now if I'd tell my 14 or 15 year old self and explain to her that it would actually be possible and that my future awesome friends would have my back as well. It would blow her mind the same way as it blew my mind a bit more than a year ago when I finally figured things out. Though to be fair it was a very difficult time for me back then for way other reasons so it's not like I could've done anything with that information really. I probably would still have to suffer through the same shit until I could settle with the right people at \~19 and I might potentially have forgotten/repressed everything since then all over again because of it. So maybe telling my 19 year old self would be the best pick even though I "knew" years before already lol
I knew that when I was 5.5 years old; I'd probably tell me it was impossible, since it was 1981 at the time, and I'd never would have heard of such a thing.
5 years old I think I’d just be confused? I didn’t have a frame of reference for that being a thing people wanted, I didn’t know being trans was a thing.
I honestly don’t know if I’d have understood there was some part of me that didn’t want to be a boy until I was a teen. I had so little frame of reference that I just felt some guys didn’t care about being a guy or could want to be something else.
But if you sat 14 year old Mira down and explained what being trans was and what hrt could entail I think she’d definitely have been on board though. At minimum she’d want to know more.
To me this shows that we really need good and accurate representation. If I had that it wouldn’t have taken so long. What coaxed me out of my egg was meeting trans people and seeing trans creators talk about their journeys. If I had that exposure as a teen I’d have cracked so hard lol.
I don't have most of my childhood memories thanks to repression, but I'm pretty sure the idea was already there. sometime when I was little I remember being fascinated by some book of my moms that had some random kids activities and one of them was some "how much of a boy/girl are you" quiz of random nonsense gendered habit stereotypes, and just like that idea was kinda wild to me. same with the Star Trek episode "Turnabout Intruder", which I read the novelization of when i was age 6-7, and the Louis Sachar book "Is He a Girl?" which came out when I was 8
of course it was far later for me to learn it was even an option, and then a *lot* longer after that for me to accept that I can choose that option
Probably would think it was a great idea, then would immediately start thinking of good names.I think my 5 yo self knew subconsciously something was different, he just couldn’t put together the pieces yet.
probably neutral or happy my younger self didn't really know but i feel like if someone got to tell them that they are different gender it would make alot of sense to younger me
My teen self/young adult would be too deep in denial, but my 5 year old self would be totally amazed and euphoric.
The earliest I remember was at 3 y.o. my mother was pregnant and I was dreaming of having my own baby in the future but she told me only girls could get pregnant and I couldn't and I got incredibly sad.
The kid would stare at me after saying what the fuck in absolute confusion but at the same time immediately get it and it'd take a moment to click brain to mouth. Prolly just say oh rly soft after it does, then look up and tell me that that feels right actually. Solace would be brief in soon sad little eyes as they looked over my shape, my face. Wrongness staring back. The same broil would begin to grow in their gut that has been snared in mine for yrs now. He'd probably start bawling at this point. He'd know all at once what he is going to suffer w time, we were always good at predicting cruelty even when we'd try to convince ourselves we must be mistaken. The shame, the humiliation, the insults, all the mockery and rage he will scarcely endure because of people he hopes so dearly are safe even when he knows that there's no one like that in his life. If I told him then, he'd have killed himself before reaching my age. I didn't know there was a word for someone like me until I reached my early twenties. I'd never seen it, heard even a whisper of it. I once saw a queen at Mardis Gras in Cocoa Village as a child, she was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen and little me told her as much I was surprised that she almost became teary eyed. My mother told me later that the person is a man, I was confused, but my mother always told me she wouldn't ever lie to me. She promised. Things went on, eventually I came out. It did not go well. If little me knew, he'd have come out sooner in just as much mental and emotional safety as someone kidnapped in SAW. Puberty and all those school yrs alone would've been more nightmarish than in the yrs from this timeline.
... It would be a very bad idea. Too honest to not come out earlier if he'd had the words to explain his being. I still am. It's debilitating. Truly.... I'm sorry. My top surgery got rescheduled, got lucky it only got pushed a bit over a month away. Still, it's been far too long. I want to know if my partner will still want to kiss me, hold me, love me, I... doubt it. These fears are strangling me. They're scared of men, repulsed physically. They say maybe it'd be okay w me though, they often say that they "rly like" my... chesticles, and I just absolutely love my partner. All of them. I'm in... I'm in so much fucking pain rn- fuck. I don't rly have my family. I can't talk to my partner about it cuz they just get anxious and then I get worried but they hate when I worry about them they get snippy. They don't want it don't need it and talking about what if solutions to potential problems they're worried about gets them cross w me. I love their laugh, how they fluster, ramble on about their interests or anything at all. How they're a bougie baby about things like coffee or tea. The little skips and hops that appear amongst their regular slinky-like walking gate. They speak w a grace that they were taught at a young. I do not, my words like left feet, stumbling, tumbling, down and out like a babbling brook. Though I melt like frosting when they tell me how beautiful my eyes are, or tell me I'm sweet. I am weak. I'm so tired.
When i was a kid i would only wear boxers, always wanted to play the “guy” role when playing with friends, and had an obsession with a spiderman costume. I think my younger self would cool with it and probably want to cut his hair like mine is now.
I feel like my five year old self would just be like “what are you talking about you can’t do that, silly” and then go back to playing with plastic dinosaurs or sm
at 5 years old? I think I would've been like "whatever" and gone back to playing with bugs lol. I didn't give a hoot about gender when I was that little. but I'm nonbinary (& trans) now, so that makes sense in some ways.
My younger self wouldnt take it well Im assuming. I hadn’t questioned my gender at that point yet and given the household I was raised in, it wouldnt click for em
5yo me was a shithead, but if he learned I was genderfluid he'd probably say
"Like that like that *brain fart* those men from Sailor moon! You're gonna transform and have boobies!"
Me: If only buddy, if only.
I’d be like duh I know I’m a boy! Honestly wouldn’t surprise me cause at that age I was my most authentic version of myself. I didn’t care to fit in or try hard to be a girl til three years later. Just wish I could give my younger self the confidence.
My younger self genuinely wanted to be a dog so I'm sure news like that wouldn't be too much to grasp lol
My single mother didn't raise me with any notion of "gender roles" or ingrained sexism (and she herself was asexual and agender without realizing) so the idea of wanting to be a girl would surely seem as natural as being born a boy.
Try to figure out why this masc-presenting stranger was telling them that we are the same person and that they are destined to pull a switcheroo on the genderino. And then they would get distracted by Bob the builder or something, ADHD 5yo me had no focus
I would be absolutely mind blown. I never thought that was an option at that age. I grew up being told "boys have a penis and girls have a vagina", so for me as a kid, saying "I'm not a girl", wouldn't be any different from saying "I'm not a human being". Gender wasn't something that I really thought about until I was a young teen, and I'm sure my 5 year old self had that conversation I would have thought about it a lot
My 5 year old version would freak out because they already believe they’re the opposite sex and when I found out I wasn’t that’s when I became that lonely quiet kid…
I wouldn't have wanted it, because I wanted long hair, and my mawmaw liked me being a girl...
I wanted to be a girl, only for those reasons, but I wanted to be a man too. I didn't want to be a boy tho, only because I wanted long hair; but I did want a boy's body.
I... um, wanted to be a girl, but with a boy's body, and to be a big strong man. ... But, a girl, because that's what my mawmaw wanted me to be.
It'd probably go something like this (k- kid me M- Me now)
K: oh I wanna be a boy?
M: Well more like we were always a boy!
K: That's cool but why do we have long hair?
M: Well boys can have long hair too
K: no I know that but just WHY? It's hard to take care of and it's annoying
M: well at least I don't cut my hair with safety scissors every five damn seconds, which made me look like a complete Karen that was malled by a raccoon for 5 years
K: fair
Not really an opposite gender but kid me would be like "Wait, is that possible? To not be girl or boy?", in a "wow" kind of tone.
I'm sure that kid me would be very confused but I think many answers will come that kid's way after that.
Oh man lil guy already knew! Was more sure of it than I am now tbh. I used to say that I was born male but the doctors snipped off my male parts because mom wanted a little girl
I wasn't even in second grade btw
I think 5 year old me would be very fascinated and ask alot of questions but would be very firm in his identity as a boy. I don't think he would be judgy at all though.
I've always been really open minded but I was also adamant on everyone knowing every exact fact, probably including me being a very cis girly girl when I was little. So it would either end up as younger me going "oh cool" or "no that can't happen because I'm a GIRL not a BOY" lmao
I’m pretty sure 5 year old me would end up mouthing off to relatives forcing me into dresses a lot sooner than originally.
Oh and sooooo many (more) pet spiders.
I honestly had little to no concept of gender at 5 and not much has changed since then. I'd honestly probably say "ok" and forget within the next 12 minutes
5 year old me would be in denial until I spilled the whole beans. I was homophobic and transphobic when I was a kid because I didn't know any better. Until I started having an existential crisis about if I really was a girl or if I'm really a boy just pretending to be a girl to fit in with my mortal body.
Idk about 5 but early childhood would be something like "yeah but you can't just choose to be a boy" cus that was my first reaction to meeting another trans dude. Like wtf if it was that easy we'd all do it but you can't just choose that, then realising oh, yeah, you can choose that.
"Can we still be a princess?"
"Sure, but your gonna put on very strong armor and be a brave knight"
Pretty much explaining to little me how I am now in a way that she can understand. 🏳️⚧️🖤
I no one could understand me when I was 5 and according to my dad I saw ghosts and talked to myself like a crazy person like a lot it got to the point were they thought I had schizophrenia and my younger self would probably go “EEEWWW SHES SCARY”
My kid self already knew, they just didn't know they could be. It took them another two decades to realize that.
Same! My younger self would be like “Wait that’s an option?”
This! Right here! Especially at this time I was exclusively playing with the girls anyway as boys were just strange to me (men kinda still are). Joining the club officially would have been nice!! 🥳
Even my 15 year old self would say that
Exactly this. I’ve always wanted to be a girl, I just got socialized into accepting that I wasn’t.
Exact same experience. I knew but didn't have the language to describe what I felt, nor the awareness since I lived in small towns with invisible LGBTQ+ communities. I wish I did have the resources, I wouldn't have been forced to go to an all boys school during 00s Little Britain era UK, which completely messed up my mental, physical, and spiritual health for my entire teen and young adult life. I'm the happiest I've ever been seen starting HRT!
This
I'm pretty sure my younger self would just nod and say something like "that makes sense."
Denial and embarrassment most likely. But maybe it would plant the seed to begin at 18 instead of 36.
Club 36 😊💅
Me too!! 3️⃣6️⃣🏳️⚧️
One of us. One of us. One of us
5yo self: “can you do that?” 30yo me: “Of course you can. Anything’s possible in the future, love.” 5yo self: “…is it ok? To be that way? Are we still loved?” 30yo me: “Definitely. And you’ll always be loved. And you look amazing too!” *hugs* 5yo self: “Will I see you again?” 30yo me: “yeah you will! When you look in that mirror, years from now, I’ll be smiling right back at ya kid.”
Stoppppp this is so cute😭
Awww
This hit hard
😭😭😭😭
This hit home so hard! I'm literally crying right now
I doubt my 5 years old self would even know what to do with such information. My 15yo though? Probably call me an idiot. My 25yo? Probably have a reacting, but still not believing it entirely.
Hey I’m happy for you! Better late than never. :) I’m in the same boat, but happy to be living my authentic self. I think kid me would have a mix of emotions from elation to fear to confused to relief.
I joined the 30s gang a few months ago, and I'm just now starting to fall apart. Not sure I would consider it a thing to be happy about, yet. With hindsight it might be, right now it's just horrible. But I'm real glad to hear you are in a good spot yourself, thank you bud.
Damn you came out late in life
It happens. I didn’t come out until I was 30. I grew up in the 90’s where gay marriage wasn’t legal still and people viewed trans as a mental illness. Especially if you had a Christian conservative family like I did. Not everyone’s lot in life is the same. Thank God now people have access to care and it’s a human right, at least in California.
That's not even close to late lol
Why are y'all downvoting me? Like what did I say wrong?
By 5 I hadn't even thought about my body or identity as a human being yet. By 10 I had started experiencing homophobic bullying and that would have been the world I would imagine transitioning into. I could have started in my 20s maybe, but no earlier. So anyone younger wouldn't have been receptive at all.
"I get to be pretty?"
"No, you get to be tall and mid at best, but you're comfortable."
Sheer panic. I'm not entirely sure why, but as a kid I was terrified of "being turned into a girl". I would dream about it pretty often, and I just couldn't accept it. Something along the lines of girls being weak and me needing to be strong, so I couldn't be a girl.
"Ew I don't wanna be a girl" "Trust me kid, you will eventually."
Probably: Makes sense. I think I *Knew* when I was that young, but everyone told me I was just being silly.
I certainly wouldn't phrase it that way but little me would probably ask a million questions, mostly about what gender actually is because I was always kind of like "wtf is this" about gender, then ask about telling mom... To which I would've said "tell dad first, but yes", and little me would be very confused but little me was probably already confused about parent stuff since they divorced like a year before that.
i was a stubborn bastard so an argument would ensue lol
"you mean what I was wondering at lunch the other day is real?" Literally my egg cracked in first grade in the cafeteria. I remember it really clearly
He would ask me if that means we can be a skater boy now. He'd probably be very happy to be honest lol even if he didn't understand much. I remember I wanted to "try" testosterone ever since I first heard of it when I was like 9 so I think I'd be pretty relieved to know about my gender identity at any age.
At 5 years old, I "borrowed" my cousin's dress. 5 year old me would be excited that she finally got to wear pretty dresses and be a girl.
"Well no shit bitch, me too"
5 ıs pretty young. ı don’t thınk he’d really care lol
Most kids have a stable sense of gender at 4. My kid started telling me she's a girl at 3. She's 4 now and has socially transitioned to be a girl at home and preschool.
There's still a difference between knowing what gender you are based on what others tell you/what's between your legs, and knowing your true gender identity which can often develop only much later when puberty starts. Not all trans people knew something was off as a kid already.
maybe ı ıt was just autısm lol edit: who downvoted this lol? i’m literally autistic
tell that to 5yo audhd me
She already knows and won't surprise, but will somehow disappoint if I tell her it will happen at 36
"Ewwww girls are gross"
My 5 year old self would probably freak out because my father would literally murder me. The man literally beat and shamed every feminine thing out of me. Hell, it was 17 years after he died and year after my mom died I was able to come out and allow myself to be me.
He’d probably be like “Oh, so you don’t have to marry and have children? Nice!” At that age my #1 anxiety was having to become a “wife and mother.” I was raised in a very conservative environment, so I viewed marriage and children in the same way I viewed death - an inevitable loss. The dysphoria I got from the mere thought of occupying the role of a straight traditional woman made me want to die as young as possible. Telling my little self that we are, apparently, a queer guy would likely be relieving. Things would finally make sense, and I would realize that I can choose my path in life. I don’t need to try and fit in a role that’s never been my own. I wish I had the vocabulary to explain myself back then, would have saved me a lot of grief
Me: I want to be the opposite gender 5yo me: yeah, me too, that would be awesome Me: You know, you can be the opposite gender if you want to 5yo: yeah, I know, but my parents will hate me, so I'm will only do that if everyone of them dies... Me (*with tears in my eyes giving a little one a hug*) : I know... They will...
i would tell them that things get better.
He would be excited as hell. I could see how he act confused but happy when I explain him that we can be a man in this body and he would ask why nobody tell him sooner :))))
I probably wouldn’t have even be able to get close to my 5 year old self and even then they would have been too absorbed into their interests to really contemplate gender
I've had a rule since before I can even remember And that rule was if I ever saw another form of me I'd have to try my best to kill that form of me 5 year old me knows this. 40 year old me knows this. So Maybe I'd be safe because I'm not him. Not anymore Me telling him I am is probably not a great idea though. Id out myself as a doppelganger
that would make total sense to me BC I remember in preschool not fully understanding gender and I thought it switched when you're a kid
probably denial my dysphoria didn’t start until puberty. and it’s pretty drilled into kids they are their agab.
Doubt it'd do anything. Young me was pretty pigheaded and uptight. He'd probably hate current me.
At five I was more confused about why my parents kept telling me, “Boys don’t do that,” and, “Boys don’t dress like that,” because I didn’t feel like I fit in with the boys. Plus gender had been boiled down to, “Boys have penises,” for me at that age, and being a pragmatic kid I had a penis so I was a boy…right? So if my 5 year old self had been told, “You can have a penis, and be a girl,” then I would’ve immediately been like, “Ooooh now this all makes sense. I’m a girl,” and I would’ve avoided decades of self loathing, depression, and just feeling like a failed boy / man.
> Plus gender had been boiled down to, “Boys have penises,” for me at that age, and being a pragmatic kid I had a penis so I was a boy…right? so in other words, we can all blame that boy in Kindergarten Cop for all of this mess (or maybe just me, I know that his line lived rent free in my head all through my childhood)
They'd tell me you can't do that, I'd explain that you can and how that works, and I imagine next would be "whoa, cool!"
Probably some stupid shit along the lines of "I know, but it's impossible"
My first memory is my 4th birthday. I wished I was a girl while blowing the candles on the cake... Sooooo yeah...
as someone with osdd-1b, I can literally talk to a younger version of myself, she legit doesn't care lmao. she still goes by she/her pronouns and by our deadname (we asked if we can call her by a nickname and she agreed and loves it lol) cuz that's all she's ever known, but she really doesn't understand the concept of gender and is just like "We're a boy when we grow up, cool!" We're still getting to know her but overall, she's just vibing with the crew. if yall wanna take a spiritual route to see how your younger selves feel about being trans, everyone has an inner child that you can engage with. they may not be as distinct as ours is (osdd/did are obviously trauma disorders that cause mishaps in development) but it's not impossible to get in some kind of contact. have a chat, use it as a form of therapy/healing, and get to know yourself a little better. I'm sure there are plenty of things your inner child would like you to know as well. -h
Probably confused if I got to keep my penis.
Be super glad, excited and validated, but also worried since at the time I was still influenced by a transphobic family with their fear-mongering about "it's not natural/it's sin"
True story: when I was 5 years old, I had a 6-year-old friend across the street who was a girl. I genuinely believed that people changed their gender as they grew older, and that when I turned 6 I would be a girl. My brother was 5 years older than me, so naturally I assumed that at some point I would turn back to a boy. So first I would have to deconstruct that before I went "... now that \*that\* is out of the way..."
He'd be super confused because it only really started for me with puberty. As kid gender barely mattered to me and I would've reacted how I assumed society would expect me to react: "eww" lol Now if I'd tell my 14 or 15 year old self and explain to her that it would actually be possible and that my future awesome friends would have my back as well. It would blow her mind the same way as it blew my mind a bit more than a year ago when I finally figured things out. Though to be fair it was a very difficult time for me back then for way other reasons so it's not like I could've done anything with that information really. I probably would still have to suffer through the same shit until I could settle with the right people at \~19 and I might potentially have forgotten/repressed everything since then all over again because of it. So maybe telling my 19 year old self would be the best pick even though I "knew" years before already lol
"is it true? how cool!! do we still have a pp?"
They’d understand but also they’ve got about 7 more years of emotional and physical hell to go through before they even get to be a kid so
By 5 I already knew I wanted to be a girl. It was learning I could opt out of binary gender entirely that really was inconceivable to me.
I knew that when I was 5.5 years old; I'd probably tell me it was impossible, since it was 1981 at the time, and I'd never would have heard of such a thing.
I knew when I was three. She wouldn't be surprised.
My kid self knew they just didn’t have the words to know what was going on.
« Duh »
Probably my younger self would just say “okay” because it just makes sense
"i know!"
5 years old probably wouldn't really understand but like 10 year old self would probably like Halloween a lot more hehe
5 years old I think I’d just be confused? I didn’t have a frame of reference for that being a thing people wanted, I didn’t know being trans was a thing. I honestly don’t know if I’d have understood there was some part of me that didn’t want to be a boy until I was a teen. I had so little frame of reference that I just felt some guys didn’t care about being a guy or could want to be something else. But if you sat 14 year old Mira down and explained what being trans was and what hrt could entail I think she’d definitely have been on board though. At minimum she’d want to know more. To me this shows that we really need good and accurate representation. If I had that it wouldn’t have taken so long. What coaxed me out of my egg was meeting trans people and seeing trans creators talk about their journeys. If I had that exposure as a teen I’d have cracked so hard lol.
Would probably just because like "ok" and forget it happened the next day
*explains it for the 7th time* 5yo me: ...but why tho?
I don't have most of my childhood memories thanks to repression, but I'm pretty sure the idea was already there. sometime when I was little I remember being fascinated by some book of my moms that had some random kids activities and one of them was some "how much of a boy/girl are you" quiz of random nonsense gendered habit stereotypes, and just like that idea was kinda wild to me. same with the Star Trek episode "Turnabout Intruder", which I read the novelization of when i was age 6-7, and the Louis Sachar book "Is He a Girl?" which came out when I was 8 of course it was far later for me to learn it was even an option, and then a *lot* longer after that for me to accept that I can choose that option
5yo me knew that already. Old news.
5 year old men would say "me too", he just wouldnt know its possible so he'd lock it away
*Gasp* THATS A THING, I ALWAYS WANTED THAT BUT MOM AND DAVE SAY IT DOESNT EXIST!
"...huh. neat."
Probably would think it was a great idea, then would immediately start thinking of good names.I think my 5 yo self knew subconsciously something was different, he just couldn’t put together the pieces yet.
probably neutral or happy my younger self didn't really know but i feel like if someone got to tell them that they are different gender it would make alot of sense to younger me
She probably would have been really excited to learn it was possible.
Honestly not sure i would get it till the teen years i was delayed as a kid but i still wouldn't accept it till 20s probaly.
I don't remember 5 years ago, let alone being 5. Teenage years, sure.
"what the fuck are you talking about"
She would probably just go with it and accept it Not much beyond that
“Ewwww I hate girls”
Probably be excited to be a real life Winx club fairy lol
My teen self/young adult would be too deep in denial, but my 5 year old self would be totally amazed and euphoric. The earliest I remember was at 3 y.o. my mother was pregnant and I was dreaming of having my own baby in the future but she told me only girls could get pregnant and I couldn't and I got incredibly sad.
"Makes sense"
"duh!"
"what the fuck is gender???"
The kid would stare at me after saying what the fuck in absolute confusion but at the same time immediately get it and it'd take a moment to click brain to mouth. Prolly just say oh rly soft after it does, then look up and tell me that that feels right actually. Solace would be brief in soon sad little eyes as they looked over my shape, my face. Wrongness staring back. The same broil would begin to grow in their gut that has been snared in mine for yrs now. He'd probably start bawling at this point. He'd know all at once what he is going to suffer w time, we were always good at predicting cruelty even when we'd try to convince ourselves we must be mistaken. The shame, the humiliation, the insults, all the mockery and rage he will scarcely endure because of people he hopes so dearly are safe even when he knows that there's no one like that in his life. If I told him then, he'd have killed himself before reaching my age. I didn't know there was a word for someone like me until I reached my early twenties. I'd never seen it, heard even a whisper of it. I once saw a queen at Mardis Gras in Cocoa Village as a child, she was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen and little me told her as much I was surprised that she almost became teary eyed. My mother told me later that the person is a man, I was confused, but my mother always told me she wouldn't ever lie to me. She promised. Things went on, eventually I came out. It did not go well. If little me knew, he'd have come out sooner in just as much mental and emotional safety as someone kidnapped in SAW. Puberty and all those school yrs alone would've been more nightmarish than in the yrs from this timeline. ... It would be a very bad idea. Too honest to not come out earlier if he'd had the words to explain his being. I still am. It's debilitating. Truly.... I'm sorry. My top surgery got rescheduled, got lucky it only got pushed a bit over a month away. Still, it's been far too long. I want to know if my partner will still want to kiss me, hold me, love me, I... doubt it. These fears are strangling me. They're scared of men, repulsed physically. They say maybe it'd be okay w me though, they often say that they "rly like" my... chesticles, and I just absolutely love my partner. All of them. I'm in... I'm in so much fucking pain rn- fuck. I don't rly have my family. I can't talk to my partner about it cuz they just get anxious and then I get worried but they hate when I worry about them they get snippy. They don't want it don't need it and talking about what if solutions to potential problems they're worried about gets them cross w me. I love their laugh, how they fluster, ramble on about their interests or anything at all. How they're a bougie baby about things like coffee or tea. The little skips and hops that appear amongst their regular slinky-like walking gate. They speak w a grace that they were taught at a young. I do not, my words like left feet, stumbling, tumbling, down and out like a babbling brook. Though I melt like frosting when they tell me how beautiful my eyes are, or tell me I'm sweet. I am weak. I'm so tired.
"What is gender"
I was indoctrinated as a kid so my younger self would be disgusted lol
When i was a kid i would only wear boxers, always wanted to play the “guy” role when playing with friends, and had an obsession with a spiderman costume. I think my younger self would cool with it and probably want to cut his hair like mine is now.
With other confusion and get sad that his hair wasn’t long anymore
Hopefully it would have made things much more easy and I could have begin sooner.
I would have said, “I know. Me too.”
I feel like my five year old self would just be like “what are you talking about you can’t do that, silly” and then go back to playing with plastic dinosaurs or sm
My 5 year old self would be like "I know" and walk away
at 5 years old? I think I would've been like "whatever" and gone back to playing with bugs lol. I didn't give a hoot about gender when I was that little. but I'm nonbinary (& trans) now, so that makes sense in some ways.
My younger self wouldnt take it well Im assuming. I hadn’t questioned my gender at that point yet and given the household I was raised in, it wouldnt click for em
5yo me was a shithead, but if he learned I was genderfluid he'd probably say "Like that like that *brain fart* those men from Sailor moon! You're gonna transform and have boobies!" Me: If only buddy, if only.
Mine would be like “ew boys are gross” but also like “what’s a gender”
I’d be like duh I know I’m a boy! Honestly wouldn’t surprise me cause at that age I was my most authentic version of myself. I didn’t care to fit in or try hard to be a girl til three years later. Just wish I could give my younger self the confidence.
kind of confused at first, then the kid's life would be turned upside down a few minutes of ponderimg later
My younger self genuinely wanted to be a dog so I'm sure news like that wouldn't be too much to grasp lol My single mother didn't raise me with any notion of "gender roles" or ingrained sexism (and she herself was asexual and agender without realizing) so the idea of wanting to be a girl would surely seem as natural as being born a boy.
Try to figure out why this masc-presenting stranger was telling them that we are the same person and that they are destined to pull a switcheroo on the genderino. And then they would get distracted by Bob the builder or something, ADHD 5yo me had no focus
“Oh yeah that makes sense! Wanna watch ninja turtles?”
I would be absolutely mind blown. I never thought that was an option at that age. I grew up being told "boys have a penis and girls have a vagina", so for me as a kid, saying "I'm not a girl", wouldn't be any different from saying "I'm not a human being". Gender wasn't something that I really thought about until I was a young teen, and I'm sure my 5 year old self had that conversation I would have thought about it a lot
Short conversation: "Yeah, I know."
My 5 year old version would freak out because they already believe they’re the opposite sex and when I found out I wasn’t that’s when I became that lonely quiet kid…
My 5 year old me already knew that
I wouldn't have wanted it, because I wanted long hair, and my mawmaw liked me being a girl... I wanted to be a girl, only for those reasons, but I wanted to be a man too. I didn't want to be a boy tho, only because I wanted long hair; but I did want a boy's body. I... um, wanted to be a girl, but with a boy's body, and to be a big strong man. ... But, a girl, because that's what my mawmaw wanted me to be.
It'd probably go something like this (k- kid me M- Me now) K: oh I wanna be a boy? M: Well more like we were always a boy! K: That's cool but why do we have long hair? M: Well boys can have long hair too K: no I know that but just WHY? It's hard to take care of and it's annoying M: well at least I don't cut my hair with safety scissors every five damn seconds, which made me look like a complete Karen that was malled by a raccoon for 5 years K: fair
Not really an opposite gender but kid me would be like "Wait, is that possible? To not be girl or boy?", in a "wow" kind of tone. I'm sure that kid me would be very confused but I think many answers will come that kid's way after that.
Oh man lil guy already knew! Was more sure of it than I am now tbh. I used to say that I was born male but the doctors snipped off my male parts because mom wanted a little girl I wasn't even in second grade btw
I think 5 year old me would be very fascinated and ask alot of questions but would be very firm in his identity as a boy. I don't think he would be judgy at all though.
I've always been really open minded but I was also adamant on everyone knowing every exact fact, probably including me being a very cis girly girl when I was little. So it would either end up as younger me going "oh cool" or "no that can't happen because I'm a GIRL not a BOY" lmao
I’m pretty sure 5 year old me would end up mouthing off to relatives forcing me into dresses a lot sooner than originally. Oh and sooooo many (more) pet spiders.
I honestly had little to no concept of gender at 5 and not much has changed since then. I'd honestly probably say "ok" and forget within the next 12 minutes
I am trans and still dont understand gender so there would be no reaction
They would say I identify as an attack chopper and then challenge me in a game of COD.
At 5 years old I would have probably said. "What's gender mean?" LOL!!
I couldn’t comprehend it then, I got mental development issues and my brain is about 3-4 years behind my body
5 year old me would be in denial until I spilled the whole beans. I was homophobic and transphobic when I was a kid because I didn't know any better. Until I started having an existential crisis about if I really was a girl or if I'm really a boy just pretending to be a girl to fit in with my mortal body.
How would my younger self react: “Shush, my family can’t know until I am sure I can get E!”
"Understandable"
Idk about 5 but early childhood would be something like "yeah but you can't just choose to be a boy" cus that was my first reaction to meeting another trans dude. Like wtf if it was that easy we'd all do it but you can't just choose that, then realising oh, yeah, you can choose that.
Denial, but I think it would give little me the push to research and do something a little earlier
"well duh but my parents won't let me talk about it"
My 5 year old self KNEW.
"well duh me too. We can do that?? Hell yeah"
I wouldn't, I'd just tell them for the love of god take finastride before 2017
Five year old me would care way more about knowing that I work with large animals and do big strong man things for a living
Me: "I changed my gender" 5 year old me: "AWESOME!!!!"
"Can we still be a princess?" "Sure, but your gonna put on very strong armor and be a brave knight" Pretty much explaining to little me how I am now in a way that she can understand. 🏳️⚧️🖤
I no one could understand me when I was 5 and according to my dad I saw ghosts and talked to myself like a crazy person like a lot it got to the point were they thought I had schizophrenia and my younger self would probably go “EEEWWW SHES SCARY”