What age did you accept your gender identity?

I started to really consider the possibility at like 13, and it's kinda always been a presence in my life looking back, but I didn't fully accept it until I was 15. Probably a few good months before joining this site. Even then it wasn't like whole-hearted acceptance, it was more like "Okay. This is a thing. I'm pretty sure that it's real. I want to be a girl." I only started to passionately and whole-heartedly accept that I was Transgender when I was 16. I still kinda doubt myself occasionally, but I'm like 99.99...% certain that I'm trans and that I want to transition. So, I'd say 16.

 

I knew I wasn't a girl when I was 14 or 15, and maybe even younger, but I didn't realize I was trans until I was 18 or 19. I didn't really start coming to terms with it until I was 21.

 

At fifteen I learned what transgender meant.
At sixteen I accepted myself and came out to a brother and a teacher.
At seventeen I came out to my parents.
At eighteen I am back in the closet.
At nineteen I will come out to the world.

 

Had a good idea about what I was around middle school. Experimented in college. Finally accepted what I am around 31.

 

I accepted that I was on the genderqueer/fluid spectrum about a litttle over a year ago, I when I was 16.
I wasn't very sure about my gender as a child, I was pretty gender non-conforming too

 

Being a girl confused me my whole life. I thought I was rubbish at it, because it didn't feel right to me and I didn't understand it. I went through that, sometimes trying and hoping I'd get it eventually and mostly to winging it, until I was 19, realized what being transgender was, and researched the hell out of every gender identity I came across. I accepted that I was transgender around 21, slowly came out to friends over the summer, and came out to family (most of them anyway, the rest found out through others) a few weeks after I turned 22.

 

Not until I was 47 - two months ago. But that's only because I didn't know there was a non-binary option for transgender, that I could still be happy as a woman but also be a man at the same time. If I had been told about bi-gender as an option as a teenager in the 1980s, I probably would have embraced it even back then. As it is I've gone most of my life confused and not understanding how I could be a happy woman but also have all these masculine things going on. It was at times upsetting.

 

I was 13 when I first learn what transgender was and felt a connection to it, but I didn't fully start questioning till I was 16 and then was told I couldn't be because of my attraction to men. I didn't accept I was till I was around 22 or 23

 

I accepted it for a moment when I was around 18 but I decided not to think about it for a few years just in case I grew out of it. I legit labelled myself as trans less than a year ago and I'm 24. I believe I had dysphoria starting around 12 or 13.

 

Started questioning at 15 and probably accepted myself around 17/early 18.

 

Now...possibly...um. I'm a human being, ok. And that took a long time to figure out. That gender doesn't really matter to me, that I can be who I want to be regardless of any gender roles or rules. That, to me, male and female are just constructs. I'm outside the box.

I'm now 27...this took over 10 years. :lol:

I do prefer male pronouns though. IDK I just do.

 

Very relatable, essentially how I always as well. Like I just didn't understand being a girl and assumed I was just horrible at it.

Me, I suppose I'm still on the track to accepting myself. I first became interested in and researching the concept of being trans around 16-17. I was obsessive about retaining information on it, though I didn't understand why yet, I sort of just assumed it was due to my overlapping interest in pursuing psychology and the human mind.
After I graduated highschool at 18 it hit me like a wall of bricks that I had just never related with my teen girl counterparts and there was an underlying reason that I tried to dissociate from my own identity and just be seen as a nobody at school.
I spent that next year thinking about myself before finally telling anyone (my boyfriend) how I felt, and so at 19 I finally considered the fact that I might actually be nonbinary.
Now at 20, I still have times when I'm in and out of denial... but this is mainly because I try and block out the dysphoria. I try and tell myself I am indifferent to how people see me / what they call me but it's only because I don't entirely know what I want yet and it's hard to make yourself fit into what you want without causing confrontation or awkwardness from others. I wish I could have days where I was she/her, and others where I was he/him, but I just settle for they/them though it doesn't make me happy or I just tell people they don't have to change what they call me at all because I don't want to seem like I don't know what I'm talking about or confuse people.
I wish I could go by a more masculine name sometimes (the one I use on here), but my boyfriend considers himself straight and honestly I'm not really sure if the confrontation and confusion of trying different things would just end in rejection or not, and also, I'm not even sure if it would be worth it or make that much of a difference because I often feel it's easier to be apathetic then ruin the great thing that you have with someone. He's the only good thing I really have in my life right now, so I think the stability is worth more than the risk.

So, I've accepted who I am, but Im not sure that I've reached my full potential yet. I kind of feel like I'm at a place of standstill right now in my life, or I'm just sitting on pause for some amount of time. I'm sure I'll gain some confidence and make some decisions and move forward sometime soon, but I can accept that this is how things are for a little while. I'll just have to ruminate again someday and make it closer to my true self eventually.

 

Shortly after my sixteenth birthday. Though I had been questioning for some time before then.

 

To be honest, I am not sure I have yet. As a kid I wanted to be a boy really badly and as this seems to be so much easier as a child, I kind of was one. During my late teens I experimented with my feminine side. I started questioning after I moved out to go to university. Like Kipp I did a lot of researching first, without even knowing why this topic fascinated me so much. Finally accepted I wasn't a girl half a year later, at 19. I know I'm not 100% male either. Still don't know where exactly I fall on the spectrum. Most of the time I don't care but every few days I still get frustrated and confused and doubt everything. I guess accepting myself is an ongoing process.

 

I always thought I was just a lesbian, so I never really questioned anything further than that. I came out as gay at age 16 and thought I had figured out who I was. It wasn't until age 22 that I accepted there was something "not accurate" about who I was presenting as.

 

I started questioning when I was 13. I had started wanting to look less feminine and more masculine sometimes, and essentially crossdress. I was even seriously interested in being a drag king at some point. But I didn't actually think about my gender until a bit after that all started.

Before my actual questioning I was also weirdly fascinated with finding out about trans people and different terms. when I first learned what it was I was super interested for no apparent reason. now I guess that reason is more apparent :lol:

I think I actually started to accept that it was real and concrete after I turned 14 and got my hair cut the shortest it had ever been, but tbh I think I'm still accepting being genderqueer now, at 16. Even though I've been thinking about this for a long time, I do get times where I wonder still.

 

fully completely? 49, knowing 47/48. touching on it? most of my life.

now im 50, as of today(!):eusa_danc and this will be my Sarah time.

 

I've been questioning for a while, but I knew for sure when I was 15.

 

Happy birthday, Sarah! (!) :eusa_danc