I was eighteen. I wanted to learn more about nonbinary genders in the context of wanting to be a better ally, and I found that some of what I learned resonated with me personally.
Questioning began at fifteen. I accepted it at sixteen and that was when I first came out. There were too many things about how I related to myself and the world around me that, frankly, made no sense from a "girl." Even at twelve I recall distinctly the thought coming to mind that I feel like a gay guy trapped in a girl's body. Never really got over that feeling.
i had been questioning it since i was 13 but i finally realized it completely when i was talking to one of my friends on ec (BrookeVL) and she said something that kind of made it all click with me. it finally all made sense
you should have seen my face when i read "mason" i'm sitting on my bed and i like slid over and was smiling in an extra af way
When I was told about puberty, I didnt think any of that stuff would happen to me. I guess I figured that while I was a "girl", I was somehow immune to those changes. When things inevitably developed I was pretty shocked and felt it shouldn't be happening. So I started "questioning" then, maybe 10 or 11. Didn't come across the concept of being transgender or accept that I was until a few years later though.
I knew something about me was off around the age of 8. By the time I turned 16 I knew that I was a girl at heart. Started experimenting at 19, and then went into denial around the age of 23. Finally came out last June and have been slowly accepting and embracing who I am while dealing with all kinds of shite ever since.
Haha yes! I didn't really think I'd actually go through male puberty... I hated when it happened. Took me a lot longer to find out that transgender was actually a thing though...
I came to terms with myself at about 16 and came out to everyone at 18 but I'd always felt something off about myself. I'd never felt like a 'straight girl' and felt that I was queer since I was pretty young. I actually came out as bi to a couple friends when I was about 12 because I assumed this queer part of me to mean that I must like girls (I don't. I'm 100% gay). So just took a while for me to recognise the feeling as being a guy and not a 'butch tomboy that likes girls a bit and hates their body'.
It first appeared to me to crossdress and that I reassemble a boy an awful lot at 14. Then I identifies as non-binary quietly for a couple of years and came to the conclusion I'm trans last year, at 20. I was experimenting with my gender expression (like clothes, mannerisms, tone of voice), and came to the conclusion that I identify on the masculine side, but I had no idea how to call that, because body dysphoria and shouting out and about that I can feel it that I am a boy were rather foreign to me, I came here, asked... and yeah.
There were signs of me being trans for a while, but I didn't actually make the connection to the term transgender until I was 14, when I was reading something written by a trans person and their experiences clicked with me, and it led me to a lot of introspection and exploring my identity.
I've always played the "boy" role in pretend games as a kid. I always wanted short hair and a deep voice. I'm a musician and when I was 13 I wanted to pretend to be a guy for the length of my career (like a cross-dressing Hannah Montana). When I was 14 I learned what trans is and that summer I went to the beach and felt so awful in my swimsuit and realized my body issues weren't because of weight, they are because of gender. I was also VERY jealous of all the guys that were there (flat chest, MUSCLES??? I want that!). here I am, 4 years later, haven't come out yet. -Benji
I was 21 when I started seriously questioning my assigned gender, I actually posted about this on another thread, so I'll just copy/paste my reply from there. I've always found the idea of lesbianism attractive (basically since I found out what it was) but for a long time I just thought I was a guy with a lesbian fetish. Eventually I started to suspect that something was up, but I still tried to push it away or suppress it. Then I read a graphic novel called "Blue Is The Warmest Color" (there is a movie based on it, but from what I've heard it's not a faithful adaptation of the book) which is a lesbian love story about a young woman living in a pretty homophobic environment, who falls for a out-and-proud lesbian. The main character spends most of the first half of the book struggling to come to terms with what she is feeling (as she has always been told that same sex attraction is wrong), and it was this part of the story that inspired me to start seriously questioning my gender identity. About a month latter I made an account on this site, and well the rest of the story is spread across these forums.
I think that I knew that I wasn't a girl really back in the 4th grade but I've started questioning myself at the age of 15 one year later I was almost 100% sure and now I'm absolutely sure
I've known something wasn't quite right since puberty, when I wondered why I felt I should have a penis/balls to go along with my vagina, even though knew well that it doesn't work that way (we had decent sex ed at my elementary school). I never felt right presenting totally as a girl, and was actually *afraid* of girly things like flowered bedspreads, even though I desperately wanted one. It was constant low-level internal gender dysphoria that I had no name for. It wasn't until I was 47 that I finally figured it out, then was overjoyed when I found the definition of "bi-gender/dual gender" and I felt set free. I finally knew why everything felt wrong. I haven't had that existential internal dysphoria since, though the genital dysphoria is still there.
