7 years ago, I was 11 and I really liked the label “tomboy”
I was at the very beginning of puberty (wouldn’t start my period for 2 more years) and felt comfortable being a girl but couldn’t conceptualize myself growing up to be a woman.
I was very active in the church at this time and I was also a strong feminist. I pushed for the young girls’ group to include more traditionally male activities and even wrote to the president of the church to suggest they implement a Girl Scouts program.
I definitely fell very much into the typical role of a preteen boy while also not really identifying as male at all yet. I shared a room with my brothers, wore mostly boys’ clothes, and was normally gendered as male by strangers. I played basketball on the girls’ team, and I participated in my church’s Pinewood Derby as a non-scout.
I was very interested in sex at that time, but only as a concept. I don’t think I experienced sexual attraction at all until a year or two later. I had male “crushes” but they were just guys I selected to have an answer in truth or dare.
I didn’t correct strangers who assumed I was a boy but I did correct people who I would be interacting with regularly. My peers that weren’t members of the church often called me a lot of names and slurs but generally not in a way that was malicious towards me.
Idk, this is interesting to think back on. I was a pretty cool kid honestly and I think it’s neat how my relationship with my gender and sexuality has changed and how it’s also very similar in some ways. I could probably say more on this but I have like 5 paragraphs lmao