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submitted 4 days ago by may_be@thelemmy.club to c/ftm

Hi, guys. It's Larry/Jay. 15FtM(??). Ever since I was around 8, I wanted to do what the boys did and hang out with them. Sadly, I even went through a "girls stink" phase and my role models were my dad and male heroes. I liked it when I saw clothes that were for boys and I got super happy when my hair was cut short because I'd look like a boy. However, I was sheltered from LGBTQ stuff, so I just thought I was a tomboy.

The gender dysphoria never truly went away. When I was 11, I had another "role model", a male character. I wanted to wear a hoodie to hide my long hair and chest and "embody" his male spirit. I even wanted to be called a "he" sometimes. I stopped telling anyone and felt bad about it though when my at the time friend laughed at me.

13, I started experimenting with FtM identity because I never felt fully female like at all, and I always wanted to be like male characters I saw and identified more with them and saw myself AS them. Detransitioned or "desisted" when my girlfriend started bullying guys and especially trans guys.

On-and-off, I've been trans and from what I remember, usually being called "she" or a "girl", triggered me to start acting fem again.

But even with my family, even identifying as a girl, I feel like a boy and I felt dysphoria by being called "she".

I don't even know if I'm truly genderfluid or just FtM due to this since it seems from what I remember, I go back to being a girl due to force or feeling unaccepted.

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[-] november@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 points 4 days ago

I can't know what's going on inside your head, but it doesn't seem like you've actually given any reason why you think you might be genderfluid. You just sound like a guy.

That said, if you do feel more like a girl or some other gender later on in life, it's totally okay to change how you identify. It doesn't have to be rigid. (But of course, it's also okay if it does stay the same.)

[-] may_be@thelemmy.club 3 points 4 days ago

Ah, right. The reason is because sometimes I'd feel like a girl but I think it was moreso dysphoria repression.

[-] Baggie@lemmy.zip 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I'm only replying because there's no other replies at this stage, I'm a cis dude and only have limited experience with these topics, but there's some universal stuff I think I can maybe talk about here. I wouldn't want a 15 year old genuinely asking the internet for advice and receiving nothing back.

So you're going through a weird time, 15 is a difficult time regardless of your feelings on gender. Just make sure you give yourself some slack there.

It's not uncommon to have identity instability at that age. You're going between the identity that you were given as a child to the identity you want to grow up with, regardless of if that involves gender or not.

It's probably going to be a bit of a long process, but it's worth going through. There are so many people that never went beyond what their parents decided they should be, and it's not good for you.

If we're going to more practical advice, if you're feeling something internally, it's definitely more important to follow that. Understanding yourself, your own motivations and what makes you want things, it's invaluable.

Fitting in seems important, but it's really not. It's much better to be different and have a few people in your life that love you for who you are, than it is to be like everyone else and have a bunch of people that don't even know the real you.

There are going to be realities you may have to work with. If your parents are weird about it to the point of danger, you may have to prioritise survival over self expression, hide yourself around them. It sucks, but it's understandable. It's not a betrayal of who you are, it's self care. Get safe, get self sufficient.

I'd say ultimately follow what you're feeling. Experiment, be yourself. I know it'll probably be difficult, but if you just leave it alone, it's likely going to be eating at you forever.

Good luck mate! ๐Ÿ‘

I will suggest reading this: https://genderdysphoria.fyi/en Really helped me figure things out when I was questioning things

[-] may_be@thelemmy.club 3 points 4 days ago

Wowie. I'm reading it and makes sense why I dissociate so much (depersonalization or whatever) and why I always imagine myself in another life as a guy or male character.

[-] Gabadabs 4 points 4 days ago

Labels exist to help you express your identity, not to define who you are. You have plenty of time to experiment, try out new labels and see if you think they fit. And if they don't seem to fit, that's okay too.

[-] fracture 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

well it's hard to know without being in an environment where you can feel safe to explore, right? so find a place where you do feel safe, assess who among your family and friends could be safe, figure out how to get to a point where you can determine the answer for yourself

because i can read your post and say, yea you seem trans and like you're just repressing it because you're not in an accepting environment. but there are so many different ways things could shake out once you find that environment. maybe you turn out to be binary trans, maybe you turn out to be genderfluid, maybe you turn out to be... cis? alright, that's probably not the case, but you see my point

there's some urgency to figure things out, if you think your family could be supportive and if you would both want and have access to the appropriate hormone treatments. that's getting more difficult by the day, unfortunately

however, aside from that, there's no real timeline to define yourself. you are allowed to just... be what you are. the more important thing is finding the safety to express that, and, if you don't have that immediately, then finding or working towards getting it

that might mean boring shit like figuring out a career and studying and doing well in school, so you can afford to leave home, if you need to, and get the treatments you might want down the line. not to say that you have to commit to anything, but to plan and give yourself options, so when you have more information, you also have more ability to act on it

you can also see if there are trans specific spaces in your area, or try to find a space online where you mesh with the people there. i've been fortunate enough to find good people on the internet, but be cautious with your personal information and slow to trust. always trust your gut instincts, as a rule, but especially for things like this

the answer to how you define yourself and "what you are" ultimately isn't nearly as important as the space and safety to explore those things. no one can tell you who you are, but having people who accept whatever that ends up being is priceless. do your best to find those people, and everything else will work itself out

.

on the note of coping with dysphoria, i always found it helpful to remind myself that my body is a meatsuit that's meant to move me through life, and that people are always going to make false assumptions about who i am from my appearance. those assumptions may be more false for one on average than another, but ultimately, it's a sparing few people who will come to know our internal world with any amount of accuracy or intimacy. this phenomenon is in no way limited to being trans, so just try your best to bear the misunderstandings, and remember that someone's impression of you doesn't reflect or change the truth of who you are

this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
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