Do “trans kids” exist?

Emily seems much happier presenting as a girl than a boy
But how can we tell if they never got the chance to be a boy post-puberty? There’s nothing to compare to

I came across this video recently of Blaire White interviewing a young person called Emily who transitioned at a very young age. I found it quite interesting. Emily seems much happier presenting as a girl than a boy.

I do wonder about the long-term effects on Emily's health over time.

Didn't male children in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries get "breeched", put into short trousers instead of skirts, when they were about six or seven, and at the same time have their hair cut for the first time?

There's an article in Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeching_(boys)

My own grandfather, born to a farming family in 1879, was dressed in skirts until he was about 5. He lost his mother early to typhoid and his only memory of her was of being scolded for getting his petticoats muddy in the farmyard.

In Victorian photographs it's not safe to assume the toddler in a dress is a girl. She might be. He might not be.

So much of appearance is cultural!

I did try to warn him that kids like what they like... now he lives with a ballet mad dd and about a million creepy American girl dolls...

Mine all preferred green until gender cut in when the elder daughter was about ten and decided pink was the only great colour for about four years.

A quick flip through the photo album shows that when they're not in uniform of one sort or another they now tend to go for either bright colour or dark colour; not a pastel in the whole album.

There is nothing wrong with the colour pink and /or liking it, however some parents will heavily push their boy towards pink whilst telling everyone that gender is a social construct and girls should avoid pink.

I still remember one of my friends who was expecting a baby at the beginning of the century some time and spent a while looking for black babygros out of sheer cussedness; she would have settled for dark purple or any of the dark jewel colours, but nothing that wasn't pastel seemed to be available. (She wasn't a Goth.)

My children of both sexes in the 1980s often had baby clothes in dark colours, and looked great in them; nobody commented that dark blue was only for boys or dark red only for girls, it seemed to be only pink and pale blue that were gendered at that point. It's got worse since. The colours were mostly "what I could get in the second-hand baby-clothes shops", to be fair, so they sometimes got pastels as well.

yes I think all boys and girls wore dresses when they were little. Their shoes always looked so uncomfortable poor things.

Oh my, westminster school... apparently the boys voted for the colour after winning a rowing match against another school (who also, presumably wanted the colour pink).

Awwww - look at this wee fella

Generally thought to be a boy... 1901

Also Holland wasn’t it? And in great grandparents say little boys could have worn dresses...

apparently in America years ago, pink was associated with boys and blue with girls (and I'm sure I've heard the same about India) - what happens when visiting those countries? Colour/sex association is rather bizarre and seemingly arbitrary - my kids have had pink, purple, green and black phases between them (DS + DDs) and DD1 wore her brothers cast off clothes for quite a while with no issues or confusion (I didn't see the point in getting rid of good quality clothes) - this was only a few years ago - how did we become so limited?

DS likes pink. His school colour is pink. How very odd...

Not many actually go full neutral though do they? Or a mix of girl/boy/neutral (whatever that actually means).

I remember someone knitted DS a beautiful green jumper when he was a baby and someone commented that it was a boys colour - I flippin’ live in green! No, she said, boys colour but ‘neutral’ was white for a baby (yeah - because white doesn’t show the vomit/poo stains at all?).

Anyone else noticed how the parents who reject gender roles and are apparently letting their children choose their own path only ever allow their boys to have the pink sparkly stuff and not their girls.

My sister in law who annoys me anyway let her 3 year old son choose a pink bike while his big sister is never allowed anything pink or girly. She’s got a green bike that she didn’t choose and is furious about it.

I know someone will now say ‘ah but he wasn’t persistent!’ but if he had been I would have continued to tell him the truth and he would have got it eventually

My son was about 4/5 and asked me if he could have a baby in his tummy when he grew up. So I told him that only women can have babies and he would grow up to be a man and so wouldn’t be able to. He looked a bit sad for a few minutes then never mentioned it again. I do try and be truthful with him so would not have got into letting him think he might be able to be a girl. I think it’s kinder not to set a child up to have false expectations, with the inevitable disappointment just postponed until later, when it’s more entrenched and quite possibly more upsetting.

“They would tell you”

Are there the same unbelievably precocious children who say at the age of 2, with mature language the defies normal development, “Mummy I should have been born a girl and I wish I had a vagina”?

They can't "know" unless they're exposed to the idea.

For a kid to identify as trans, someone has to have told them what that means. Culture and society will do this even if the parents don't. Ditto with identifying as a girl or a boy.

I can understand why the parents at Mermaids are digging in, though. The psychological defence mechanisms are largely unconscious and very powerful.