when young, were you accepted by your peers?

[Daintre]

Well, I had a rocky start, we came to Canada when I was 5, started school at 6 and within 6-7 years my family moved 13 times. Not any time to even get to know anyone lets alone bond with boys or girls. I had my sisters to play with and they certainly did not want a "boy" around.

I was an overweight teen with no friends, in my senior year I had lost a great amount of weight during the summer time. When school started that year I was Mr popular all of a sudden, my mind had not changed, I was still me, but skinnier. I thought then as I do now...what a bunch of hypocrites
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[kymmieLorain]

Well from kindergarten till mid 4th grade I was some what popular. Then we moved and my life went down the sewer. I was an outcast, picked on till highschool. I never had a girl friend after moving when before I had meny.

Oh well that is ancient history.

Kymmie

[docrobbysherry]

I've ALWAYS gone my own way! That was fine in grade school. Had some problems with the bullies in middle school. Spent high school at the beach. Where surfing, 2 man volleyball, and layin' around the sand, with groups of guys and girls was what we did. Life was good!

As I got older, more guys, ( and gals), began respecting my independent attitude.

I've never been confortable with larger groups of folks, regardless of their sexual orientation. But, I've had my share of GFs!

Until I started dressing 10 years ago!

[helenr]

thanks to all of your for sharing your recollections. I am inclined to conclude that for me, as apparently for others, it wasn't being discriminated against by the boys that furthered your crossdressing urges. Maybe this leaning towards the soft, for some of us, that promoted the bully behavior. I believe that young men, like male dogs at the doggy park, will always try to impose dominance and go around testing to see who is an equal, who might be stronger, who is definitely weaker. Alas, I fell into the last category.

[beenherelongtime]

i wasn't the first one picked when choosing up sides, but i also wasn't the last the majority of times. i had a fairly normal child hood until i started crossdressing

[Tess]

No problems with being an outsider. I always had lots of friends at all levels of my schooling. Even though I was not the strongest kid around I had a few protectors to watch out for me. The only exception was when we moved when I was 12. It took half a school year to establish my new group of friends and so that was probably my most difficult time. It was only later, after school and military service, that friendships seemed to fall away and it became much harder to establish anything like those childhood friendships.

[MissConstrued]

Okay... maybe I'll throw a curve ball here, in the middle.


First, I did wind up on the receiving end of some bullying in grade school. I was skipped a grade, which left me the class runt for several years. Of course, when that happens, it gets around that you're smart -- a nerd -- and worthy of abuse. That lasted a couple years until I threw one kid across the bus.

(Those of you who think violence doesn't solve anything? You're clueless. It stops bullying in a New York minute. No one wants to bully a kid who fights back. I just wish my parents hadn't been pacifists, and taught me that sooner.)

I wasn't athletic, but I never quit trying. It took me until my mid-20's before I got good at any sport, and I haven't regretted the effort. I like being athletic now at age 30, when the high-school jocks are now fat and washed out. Frankly, it all went to making me a better person -- one who works at proving others wrong when they say negative things. I think it all depends on how you react to being picked on. Do you want to believe your tormentors? Or prove them wrong?

I never had female friends. They just weren't interested in what I liked to do -- shoot, race, blow stuff up. They don't like history or particle physics or power tools or motorcycles or guns or computers. I discovered the pleasures they DO offer at the age of 20, and let's just say, I still don't want to be "just friends" with girls. <--too platonic

Hrmph... all I feel like sharing for now.

[Susan.]

I blended in well because I participated in sports. My only problem is that I am an introvert.

[RobynP]

This topic and the replies are very interesting! Growing up was sort of a never-ending hell for me... I wasn't the last one to be picked when sides were chosen for teams. I was never picked by either team... Even the boys who were teased as being sissy or queer were picked for the teams... Teams would rather play with one person short than to have me on their team. So I went and played with the girls during recess where I was welcomed and accepted... Until the school made a rule that boys couldn't play with the girls during recess. I was often teased by "my peers" about many different things and when the teasing got out of hand, I would be the s%$t out of them because I was one of the bigger boys my class and I knew how to fight. I spent a lot of time in the principal's office while "my peers" were spending time in the nurse's office...

I was always a loner throughout school and never went through any of the male bonding stuff...

When I started crossdressing, it provided the ideal temporary sanctuary (or fantasy land...) from my living hell...

Robyn P.

[jessica19cd]

well i'm still young. my friends that are girls tend to accept me better than my friends that are boys

[billie earls]

I too played all the sports and other things that boys did, but I also knew that I was somehow different. I always felt sorry for those who were called things like faggot or sissy but I wasn't brave enough to do anything about it.
Because of my CD i've always been some what of a loner but that didn't keep me from participating in boys like things, I think it made me think a little deeper then most at my age. Although CDing can be a pain in the neck I wouldn't change it for anything. I'm in the closet because of my family but I'll always have this other side thats mine alone and I believe I like it that way. Sites like this make my inner self more real and keeps me from being alone.

[Juanita O]

I was a loner most of the time until i started playing football in jr high, I went to high school play football some basketball. I was not really popular until my senior year when i got an all state honor for football. I have learned over all of these years not to take myself seriously,just go with the flow.

[Angie G]

When I was a kid being bullied was not a big thing when some one tried it on me they got it back. I never had more then 1 or 2 friends at a time. I got alone with others but there was times I spent alone.
Angie

[Jonianne]

I had a very happy childhood and for the most part was accepted by my peers. My crossdressing was always a secret though. I was small and a little less than average athletic, but enjoyed playing sandlot sports with the neighborhood kids (boys and girls). I was well liked enough that once even the grade school "bully" stood up for me when someone else started picking on me.

Fact is, that I was always handled with kid gloves. I don't know why.

Another time when the principle started saying something to me about something I did not do, one of the student leaders, who was a jock, stood up for me in front of the whole school to the principle.

I am very humbled as to how and why I was protected so much.

Another time I went to retreive my bike that was stolen from a friend I had loaned it to. The bully, who was just let out of reform school, had my bike and I went to get it. He grabbed me by the collar and pulled his fist back to hit me and I just scrunched my face up waiting for the blow and then he just put his fist down and told me to take my bike and get out of there.

I am so thankful for all the angels, literal and human, that have watched out for me. Even when I came to self-acceptance of my crossdressing, I always feared God would no longer protect me, but I have found the protection is still there and I am so grateful.

[Lanore]

I don't remember ever really wanting to hang out with the boys. I just felt more comfortable with girls. When I was around boys I still felt like a girl, maybe a 'tomboy' type. Some of the girls I grew up with, did boy things and nothing was ever said. I believe when there is no pressure to be one or the other, eventually the body catches up with the mind. I call it growth from within.

[Cissy Chiana]

ironically I was often mistaken for a girl until about 16/17, I guess I was androgenous before the term was invented (or at least made popular), I wish I'd started taking hormones then so I'd be more feminine now than I grew up to be.

[Sophie_C]

Maybe not the greatest of titles,but I am meaning-when you were a little boy, were your popular with other little boys-or sort of an outcast?
I am not sure if my attraction to females and feminine clothing at such an early age wasn't equally prompted by rejection by my 'peer group' boy crowd. You understand what I mean, when in 2nd, 3rd grade--the boys and girls rarely mix and mingle except when required in a classroom.
I wasn't popular, was bullied, selected last for the dreaded 'pick your team' ,etc and I wonder if this lack of acceptance by boys wasn't as much a factor in 'going femme' as being naturally attracted to all that feminine. How about you?

When I was younger, I was smaller than most girls in my class, therefore not exactly #1 when being picked for any physical activities. But, moreso, I had some sort of undiagnosed social anxiety disorder. That's why I was more of an outcast. Whether that is tied into my t-leaning, well, that's up to Freud to decide.

But, my feminine characteristics have been there since day one. I clearly remember being told to 'stand like a boy' and have photos of myself sitting down like most women do, not to mention countless other things.

[sybercom11]

My friends growing up were the other sissies and the girls. Did not have a lot of friends who were "real boys." I didn't know I was weird because I was just being me. Some bully boys thought I was weird and verbally abused me and they did not like me hanging around the cutest the girls all the time.

[sometimes_miss]

I wasn't accepted by anyone. Parents mostly absent; sister hated me; teachers felt I 'wasn't working up to my potential', branded me as 'lazy' just because I didn't like doing what they wanted me to; other students thought my birthmark was disgusting, treated me like a leper. The isolation made me prime pickings for a pedophile, one of the results of which is that I'm a crossdresser. I didn't have any yearning for anything feminine until that happened, nor did I have any female ideas, desires, or behaviors.

[Desiree2bababe]

I was popular thruout my life, even in high school when the rumors started. It was hell but I made it through with a couple good friends.

[AmandaM]

I had friends of both sexes. But two things happened that made me think. 1. On my little league team the guys were joking around and gave every player a girl name, except for me. 2. I got hit by a ball on the arm. The coach was rubbing my arm when he looked at the other coach and said my skin was too soft for a boy.