Way to crossdressing

[Natalie5004]

The mirror and my 3 older sisters.

I am better looking as Natalie than my man look. My wife does not agree. She calls me handsome but I honestly think she is very biased.

My sisters were such beautiful young women with fantastic figures. They all had teenage boys hanging around our porch back in the 60's. I was maybe 10 years old then and I just loved that time in my life. When I dress properly I see some of their reflection in the mirror. I am trying to relive my life as one of the girls.

[HollyGreene]

When I was very young (4 or 5 years old) all the kids in the street were boys.
Then one day a new family moved in, and they had a daughter about my age. I remember the first time I saw her. She was wearing a pretty, flowery print dress. I instantly wished that I could wear clothes like that.
I didn't get the chance until many, many years later, when my baby sister had grown to the point where I could fit in her clothes. I tried them on whenever I could, and the rest is history.
If she threw anything away that fit me, it would become part of my stash.

[DianeT]

Given the plasticity of the brain, no need to look for a genetic cause for our behaviors. Not to say genetics can't have a bearing on it, but it's probably as significant as the influence of other planets over tides compared to that of our moon. Also the search for genetic causes is often tainted with whiffs of predetermination which is a mystic thing. We start with a mold of some kind, but then our close environment and ourselves are responsible for shaping the being that we grow up to be. I wanted to be a crossdresser. I consciously decided to be one. I consciously hid it from my wife. I am the sum of my actions.

[Snide_lobster]

I'm not really sure to be honest. Mine's certainly an arousing experience, and while I'm hesitant to admit it, fetishistic is probably the correct word for it. Although, it certainly started purely in that direction, it has also developed outwards, the reasons I do it now are more complex than just getting a rise.

As for how it started, I'm not sure. While there's no remnants of humiliation in my current reasons for dressing, I think that's a huge part of what caught me off guard as a kid. Probably didn't help that most of the exposure to cding was through sitcoms and cartoons where it's taboo yet familiar, and almost always played for laughs. Somewhere along the way my wires got crossed and the things I found embarrassing I found arousing. Oddly enough, this seems to be the only remnant of that, not that there were many others, but they certainly existed (perhaps I didn't feed those wolves). I had a younger sister and do have one memory of playing dress up with her and getting teased by my mother. Outside of that, my cross dressing as a kid was pretty few and far between (once at a friend's house, once at a cousin's house). I started looking into more stuff during my puberty years, which probably cemented things, and started really exploring it in college (although I probably would have liked to in high school).

So while I don't have a humiliation kink, it seems to have kind of started that way. At the same time, I know it's not because of "more options" or some bs reason (although I do enjoy the wide variety that women's attire offers), it's explicitly because it is female clothing, with the intent that I present as a girl. The oddest part though is I don't feel that I become a girl, or really encapsulate anything actually feminine. I feel pretty and sexy (and I guess I pursue looks that I find pretty and sexy on women), it never leaves anything but the realm of imitation (even if I might be a bit sassier as a tease). When I go out, I don't have a "female name" and I openly use the men's restroom. People are confused why I do it, but I don't ever feel like I'm a woman, I'm just me dressed as a girl and feeling sexy. Is it a costume then? I guess it kinda is, or perhaps I just like how my tush looks in a dress...

[AnelineM]

Crossdressing came to me all on my own. First as a youngster I was fascinated by my Mom's and Aunties lipstick. Way back in the sixties, most women commonly wore bright red or pink lipstick. I still love deep red or bright pink lipstick. One day when I was about 10 I spotted my sister's panties in the laundry when I was looking for something else and tried them on. They felt nice. I experimented a little with sister's clothing and makeup but I dropped all cross dressing during college. I got married, and was drawn to my wife's lipstick (she owned one) and panties. Then I started buying my own stuff. Now I own about 30 lipsticks and enough panties to wear every day. and of course a couple dresses, bras, wigs, shoes, and more makeup.

[Stacy Darling]

Complicated, but Hey, when I grew up surrounded by pretty girls wearing nice dresses and skirts. I played dress up as well. best thing to ever happen.

[RachelB.]

I grew up with a mother who was a radical feminist during the 60's. Males in my family were objects to be ridiculed and criticized. I started crossdressing early in life. After a lot of soul searching I have realized that I started in a effort to gain my mothers acceptance. Boy that back fired but I was hooked on the whole process and the way the clothes made me feel. Fast forward roughly 60 years and I have come to accept this part of me. I dress daily and my wife and I go shopping together often and we dress to the nines and do an evening out at least monthly ( always dressed to some extent).

[Visitor]

This is a question most of us have asked ourselves somewhere along the way. I know there is not one answer... this is not one size fits all. I expect most of us have been confused about our behaviors and often have felt shame. It was probably shame that led us to purge one or more times along the way. I've written elsewhere about my history of trauma which began with a silk petticoat my mother kept in my crib when i was an infant. Needless to say, that silk felt awfully nice when rubbed against my genitals. It would explain why I would visit her dresser drawer when I was older. I was looking for a silk petticoat. It also explains why as a 12 year old asked to babysit for our next door neighbors that with the child sleeping in a back bedroom and the parents gone, the first thing I did was go to their bedroom and begin opening dresser drawers to find her lingerie... which I put on. That led this diminutive boy to begin stealing lingerie off clotheslines and eventually to break into homes to steal lingerie.

I've used lingerie intermittently over the decades of my life. I eventually understood I was using it as a stress reliever. For about twenty years I didn't indulge that urge at all, but then the soft chest I'd had since adolescence began showing breast development. Eventually I found a community of men online who have been coming to terms with breast development. Though some men take this development to be a problem and seek surgery to have their breasts removed, other men find acceptance and often begin wearing brassieres. Since breast development is the result of diminishing testosterone which allows estrogen to have its way in our bodies, we also experience other changes in both our bodies and our minds. Most men find it easier to shop for clothes that fit their increasing curvaceous bodies in the women's department. Some wear panties because they go better with the brassieres they wear. Some find they enjoy wearing nylons and body shaping garments. They won't necessarily think of this as crossdressing but they will definitely acknowledge they are becoming more feminine. I started a thread I called Transgender but Not Transitioning which led to a healthy conversation on the topic. A few of the men on that website developed breasts as teens that prompted them, sometimes with the support of their mothers to begin wearing brassieres. One of those "men" eventually chose to transition fully and now lives with her wife as a woman. Another was born intersexed and though he lived most of his adult life as a man he has ovaries and a uterus and now lives as a woman but without SRS.

As many have observed, the key in all of this is to find acceptance with who we are and how we choose to express ourselves in the world. I don't share my journey with people in my life but I do love wearing a brassiere. My breasts fill the C cups of my brassiere with a 42 inch band. But that is all I wear. I have no interest in transitioning or presenting myself as a women. I recommend this website to men I know who want to dress more fully, to present themselves as women. We each are free to define our own path. My guess is that most of us experienced something along the way that drew us to this path. I'm not suggesting trauma, but what boy wouldn't love the feeling of a silky garment against his body. The rest of the world might not understand or support us, but at least we have places like this where we can tell the truth. I'm very grateful for that.