Hello, Moms!! Ask me questions!

[jellyfishbean]

Hey, guys! I am a teenager on a parenting website. I know y’all don’t want me here, but I thought I’d give the chance for some of you to ask questions to a teen about things and such!

@SneakyGremlins any form of advertising medicines to the public in the UK is illegal.

@jellyfishbean how do you feel about the fact that every single day in the US, ten children (18 or under) are killed by guns?

*to clarify, I mean prescription-only medicines.

I love the "I know you don't want me here".

musicposy~

Yes, it did, I kinda mentioned my mental health putting a barrier between my parents in the really long message I wrote above, but before I came out my parents would say rude things about trans people and the entire lgbt community in general. Though, I after I came out, it’s fine. I just learned to hide my emotions pretty quickly, so spending too much time with them could have revealed what I felt is probably where I’ve been coming from.

What made you decide you were sure about your gender identity at such a young age ? What gender were you born as ?

@musicposy~

Whoops, didn’t know you could tag people in posts! I posted the reply for your other question though.

It’s pretty bad in schools here. I take all honors (advanced) classes, so I can’t speak for people in regular classes, but I have spent 4+ hours on homework a night with very minimal procrastination involved. My school is very grade oriented, so the students are always pushed to take the AP (college level class) and honors constantly, as well as reorganizing our schedule to fit more classes in. With that though, we also have a terrible guidance system where all they do is push for higher and more classes.

@ArgyMargy

I assuming this is also geared towards gun control as well, so I’ll answer around that, too.

It’s a horrible things that we have children dying from guns. Any one dying from guns is horrible. Personally, I do believe in some gun control along the lines of preventing people with severe mental illnesses from getting one, better screening, and not selling unneeded guns such as assault rifles.

@IABUQueen~

I have stuck with that gender identity for the past two years and was assigned female at birth. The big factor in discovering I, and most people, was trans was the gender and body dysphoria. Dysphoria is distress, just for a quick definition. Gender dysphoria is also considered a mental illness (rightfully so). So, I started experiencing dysphoria when I started puberty. I couldn’t be seen with a bump on my chest, so I started wearing baggy sweatshirts through all seasons. When I had long hair, I couldn’t recognize myself in the mirror because a “girl” with long hair just wasn’t me. I started shying away from using she/her pronouns and calling myself female, but didn’t have anything else to call myself before I found the term non-binary! Since then, I’ve been able to cut my hair and flatten my chest with a chest binder (though I still have a long way to go in terms of transition) and the fact that I can at least recognize myself a little more after starting a transition makes me happy and shows I’m on the right track!

jelly I’m very ignorant on the topic but I mean this in the best way possible, since you recognize this as a mental illness, have you been offered counseling for how you feel? Wouldn’t you prefer going through that route before you change your body in ways that might be irreversible?

When I hit puberty, I had multiple brothers and as an only girl, I did shy away from my growing chest and definitely tried to hide it. I did used to say “I wish I was a boy” and I did behave like a “Tom boy”.

But these long hair and other issues are not what a female is, they’re a stereotype of females.. you are struggling to fit into the female version defined by ignorant society , but being a female is a very individual thing. You can be a short haired female!

I hated make up. I didn’t like playing with girls. I didn’t understand female hormones..

But I didn’t have anyone questioning my gender.. I just knew I was a “special” female who was unique in my thinking.

Female as in the genitalia and hormones , but everything else is an individual matter and I don’t feel I have anything to prove to the world.

Obviously after the transitional period I’m now proud of my chest “bumps”! Many years later.. and I recognized that being brought up close to my dad and surrounded by boys I’ve just been trying to fit in quite a lot. Not feeling close enough to my Mum also influenced my appreciation of myself.

None of that mattered at an older age and so none of it held true.. and I’m so glad I didn’t damage my body and didn’t have the opportunity to do that.

You are right I didn’t feel understood by mum, and felt pressured by society. But that was mums fault and society’s fault, nothing to do with my inability to fit their stereotype.

I’m a very confident female now.. happy to be unique and not be influenced by steriotyoes.. and I found that there are many many many females like me.

So, would you consider counseling?

@IABUQueen~

I actually have tried counseling in the past. However, I was dropped as a client after only a few sessions. I do have a partial diagnosis of gender dysphoria from that, but she couldn’t finalize in only a few sessions before dropping me.

And I understand where your coming from, but I just can’t consider myself female. Like, the idea of me being female is so foreign to me and something I feel I’ve never experienced.

This is excellent bait.

But how do you define “female”?

@IABUQueen~

Just as female. The organs I have bother me, the pronouns bother me, the F markings on IDs. Just everything is my problem.

Thank you for answering so maturely. I'm glad that at least your parents are supportive now you've come out. I expect a lot of what they said before comes from fear for your future, and worry over your mental health. I'm glad you're in a better place now.

The American education system sounds pressured in the same way ours is. There is a lot of pressure for young people here to achieve high grades in ever and ever harder exams. I think a lot of young people struggle with mental health partly because of this.

Here's a difficult question which you may not be able to answer, because, of course, no one can experience what it's like to grow up in a different generation. Do you you think some of the pressures young people face nowadays has been part of the rise in gender dysphoria? In that it's harder to find your way in the world?

@musicposy~

I don’t think it’s necessary the pressure causing a rise in gender dysphoria even though we see more trans people today. It’s the fact that we now have words to describe how we feel like trans and non-binary. And, they are easy to find and understand with the internet today. So instead of living a closed off life thinking that we are broken, we are able to easily find people like us through social media and other similar things.