What the fuck are Theriens?

[Yappucino]

My youngest DD (10) has taken a liking to jumping like an animal in the garden, drawing foxes, and wants me to buy her a mask and tail for her 11th birthday. She claims she's a "Therien" and feels like an animal. Apparently a few kids her age have gotten into it.

I think it is therian, I found it by searching online. There are other posts on here too. A bit like a furry but technically different.

Should I be concerned or is it a harmless thing kids do?

Personally (based on my own experience of a therian niece) be concerned. She was older when she started but fully believes she has an animal spirit inside her. She will be changing her name to therian name by deed poll and her entire personality is now her animal spirit. We have essentially lost our old niece, she has no therian friends in real life, her entire day is spent making content for social media and talking to her online "therian" friends. Some of which are men in their mid 30's. (She's just just turned 18). Her real life social group are a mixture of self diagnosed autistics and non-binary types with blue/pink hair.

So yeah from my experience be concerned. There are a lot of adults in the online therian community and it's another area of the internet where child grooming is hidden in a "wholesome hobby" type way.

Yikes. My daughter isn't on social media yet, only watches Youtube videos with no account, fortunately.

YouTube can be very bad in this case. The algorithm leads directly into furry territory

Get her off You Tube. I don't think this is an innocent thing. It may seem very innocent, but consider where it could potentially lead.

I’m afraid I would be cutting off access to YouTube, telling her bluntly that she isn’t an animal and then keeping her extraordinarily busy with other things until she moves on.

but someone will be along in a minute to tell me I’m an intolerant bigot so what do I know 👀

It’s from a new TV show (which was based on a book) called ´My Lady Jane’. Which is definitely not for 10 year olds. It’s a historical romance/fantasy/offbeat comedy thing.

(Forgot to add, it's Youtube Kids not regular Youtube)
Will still be monitoring it closely. She watches on the family telly anyway, so that shouldn't be hard to do yet. I'll be quite firm when she gets her first phone.

Hopefully she’s got some friends who’ve seen the show or bits of it rather than some dank corner of the internet inhabited by creepy adults who took it all too seriously.

Ah nope. Actually ignore me. The animal/human shapeshifters in that tv series are ´ethians’ and not ´therians’. Hmm. Dank corner of the internet might be the source then…

A lot of this stuff is deeply sinister and it is a world plagued with grooming, fetish and kink. I would get your child off you tube, be firm that she’s human and keep channels of communications open. Also keep her away from anime.

Yeah it's a bit of a nightmare. Almost 13 year old has been sucked in here for last year or so. YouTube is to blame for it in our case. Lots of adults telling them their parents won't understand cos they're bigots. I've gone with "that's nice dear" and hoped it'll be a phase. Does seem to lead onto furries too worryingly. No idea what the answer is unfortunately. Another way that YouTube is fucking up our children's lives.

Are they not called Ethians?
(She definitely hasn't watched that, by the way. I watched it and thought it was rubbish, but she has a kids profile on all our streaming services, and mine and her sisters profiles have passcodes.)

Anime in general? Or the anime community online?
I'm aware that the majority of anime are made for adults, and she has been taught what is and isn't appropriate. She's seen Glitter Force, which is a kids show made in an anime-style, but she doesn't have much interest. Her profiles on our Netflix etc are all set to "kids"

I'm checking her watch history on Youtube currently and it seems normal so far, so probably a friend who introduced her to the concept.

The friend could be showing or exposing her to material she doesn't see at home. I would tell her she's not an animal, that playing that game is not for children. It's innocent now but it really does lead to weird seedy adult fetish spaces.

My 13 year old knows someone at school who thinks she's therian, she posts on tiktok and other places with her mask, ears and tail jumping about on hands and knees thinking she's some sort of wolf . The majority of kids may be to polite to say it to her face but they think it's weird

I'm not sure I'd go along with any of it , although 12 years ago my friends young teen took to wearing a tail and she grew up to be a perfectly normal young women but now it's a big thing and certainly more extreme than back then

my 13 year old does watch quite a bit of anime with his 21 year old brother but neither of them think they are anything other than human males so I wouldn't say all anime is sinister

Sounds like something out of a Doctor Who episode!

Yep, a few months ago my 12 year old told me she was wondering if she's a Therian, didn’t know what animal she identifies with yet. She painted a couple of masks and did the jumping about that has another name. I just said "okay then".
She's pretty much lost interest already.
I'd say it was just a phase but I’m a 30 odd year old goth since the age of 13 so that wasn’t a phase. I don’t think she'll be 40 and Therian, but I'll be 80 and still a goth

Could be very weird. But could just be kids wanting to play and is nothing more than that. Because kids can't do that anymore.

UPDATE!
I talked to her, she said she knows that she's a human and still considers herself one, but being a Therian makes her happy and she only wants to do animal stuff when she's playing. Still find it extremely weird, but relieved to know it's only for fun and kids will be kids.

I'm happy to let her play around until she inevitably grows out of it. She also told me she isn't familiar with furries when I asked her.

Hi! Friendly therian talking here! Exclusing this to some people known as fake therians (you can guess from the name) fake being a therian, therianthropy is not a phase and can not be 'grown out of'. We don't choose it and we can't get rid of it, even if you wanted to. Being a therian isn't about acting like an animal as play, though most do quadrobics as a fun activity that makes them feel more animal-like.Therianthropy is when you identify as one, as many therians experience memories from their past lives as animals. On every level except physical, therians identify as their thereotypes and can relate to the animalistic behaviour of them. We do quadrobics on all fours to feel morre connected to our thereotypes, with mine being Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf, Scottish Fold, Cross Fox and Dragon. (Yes, you can have multiple thereotypes.) Being a therian isn't created by the internet, you are born with therianthropy, but seeing videos on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok might encourage you you're not alone in how you're feeling, that there are others just like you, and you don't feel so scared anymore. Therianthropy is also NOT from any TV shows, it is REAL LIFE, not just some thing we made up. It is us. We are it. Just like you could be autistic (which I am) or dyslexic, you are born with it and it's not inspired by anything other than our inner souls. But one thing I ask you, if your child comes out to you saying they're a therian or anything that is considered 'weird' by some of the community-whether they're a furry or quadrobist or in the LGBTQ+ community (which I myself am), please, please, please support them. It means so much to them if you support them, that they don't have to hide anything from you, that they feel safe, that they can be themselves and be free around you instead of trapped by those unspoken rules that make up 'the norm', and even if you try to beat it out of them, it's not going to work. Thanks for reading, and please no hate! 😺