"Who are Gender Variant Children?
Some children have strong and persistent behaviors that are typically associated with the other sex. Sometimes they reject the clothing and hairstyle of their birth sex. Patterns of gender-variant behavior are usually first noticed between the ages of two to four years. Gender variant boys may show an interest in women’s clothes, shoes, hair and make-up. They play-act and identify with female characters, such as Snow White or Cinderella. They prefer girls as playmates, and avoid rough-and-tumble play and team sports. Sometimes they are described as gentle, sensitive, artistic, sweet, cute, and affectionate. When young, they may express the desire to be a girl or claim that they really are girls.
Gender variant girls may insist on short haircuts and wearing boys’ clothing, while refusing to wear skirts, dresses and female bathing suits. They reject play activities that are associated with being a girl, and prefer games and toys that are typically considered more appropriate for boys. These girls may identify with male characters and refuse to assume female characters in play-acting. They prefer boys as playmates and are interested in rough-and-tumble play and contact or team sports.
These girls may also express the desire to be a boy, announce that they really are boys, and enjoy being mistaken for a boy.Not all gender variant children grow up to be trans people, and not all trans people exhibit gender variant behaviors in childhood. While some children express the desire to act, dress, play and be treated as a person of the other gender at an early age, the desire wanes in many of them later in childhood. Those who retain such desires and carry them through adolescence, whether they express them openly or not, are more likely to self-identify as trans in adolescence or adulthood."
(taken from the PFLAG website at
THIS URL.)
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Now, almost none of you that know me on LJ or even in real life knew me as a child, but this description fits me to a T (Herf Derf no pun intended). I was always the one that was "daddy" or the "boyfriend" or whatever male character there was to play when we had playdates/roleplayed. When given the option of being a boy, I took that route completely.
I was always getting into physical fights with some of the boys in my class, whether just joking around or seriously beating the crap out of each other. When I was small, I had really long hair (like... down to my butt long), but one of my best female friends always had really short hair and I envied her. I never dared to ask for a short cut till 6th grade.
While there were times in my life that I did conform to the traditional female roles, these were the times in which I was most uncomfortable. Looking back on this, I realize that it was an effort to "fit in" with the other girls, or make my family happy (not really my parents, because they've always been very neutral, but my aunt's family and my grandmother).
anxious
stressed
uncomfortable
exhausted