I was born in a nonbinary body. But because I didn't have many examples of nonbinary people when I was growing up, I didn't have the context to understand who I was. Everyone said I was a girl, and I assumed that some people, like me, lived their lives uncomfortable with their assigned gender.
From ages 7 to 10, I participated in a gymnastics class. Even then, I remember noticing and being confused by the gender lines that everyone else seemed to innately understand. It was mostly girls; the handful of boys in the class were considered brave, or strange. And I didn't fit in anywhere. I always felt the kids in my class were looking at me scornfully, judging me for somehow failing to be a girl. Something — my tie-dye T-shirts, unshaven legs, unpolished nails, or maybe just my general social confusion — was wrong.
Comments