I did not always know I was a boy: On not fitting neatly into normative narratives of trans identity.

So often, we think of, hear of, read about trans people who “just knew” about their gender since they were three years old, or five, or eight. They coveted their sister’s toys, or they screamed any time their parents tried to put them in frilly dresses. But for myself, I didn’t know from a young age that I was trans. I didn’t grow up with the feeling of being “in the wrong body” or like I should be playing with boys’ toys, or that I wanted to wear boys’ clothes instead. On the contrary (and this may seem like a shocking thing for a transmasculine person to confess), I thought my dresses were cool. I enjoyed the aesthetics of my dolls, and often contributed to them by cutting their hair or drawing on their faces… on second thought, was that because I was trans?! But while my engagement on the surface sometimes stereotypically matched the gender I was assigned at birth, they’re by no means indicators of cis identity. <a href="https://medium.com/@jinzeng/i-did-not-always-know-i-was-a-boy-55f144a17379">Website</a>