Late Bloomers?

[NancySue]

Early bloomer here. Around 6, I think. Couldn?t believe the wonderful feeling of nylons. Nothing has changed to this day. Off black today

[Raychel]

For me i was in my teens when I first started dressing. At that point it was mostly underwear.
It was not until I was in my mid 40's that I tried other clothes, Bras, Undergarments and dresses.
Then I was REALLY hooked. No going back now.

[Bea_]

I tried on my mom?s and sister?s bras a few times when they were left hanging in the bathroom as a young teen. After marrying at 18, I tried a couple. Of items on out of curiosity. It didn?t take.

I was 55 when it went from curiosity to a desire.to have my own femme things. Now, at 70,half (and my favorite part ) of my wardrobe femme.

[HollyGreene]

Early starter. My mother had given my sister some old clothes to play dress-up. I was secretly wearing those around the age of 8 if I was alone in the house. I'd wanted to wear dresses since I was about 4. At that age I'd never really seen girls - all the kids in my street were boys until a family with a pretty little girl moved in. When I saw her, I wanted to be like her.
By the time I was in my early teens I was secretly dressing in my sister's clothes.
I remember my mother buying my sister her first pairs of panties that were women's rather than kids. I was so envious of those. They were a stretchy, purple nylon mesh with ruffles. I didn't care for the colour, but loved the look and feel. My sister didn't like them so they ended up at the back of her underwear drawer, never to see the light of day (or so she thought - they did get worn from time to time!).
One day she filled a bag with clothes she no longer wanted and put them near the trash.
I got the opportunity to go through them and rescued those panties and a bikini. They were the first female items I legitimately owned. I think I was about 17.

[SophiaRose]

I started experimenting when I was 8, in the 1970s. I didn't actually "bloom" until about 18 Mo ago at the ripe ole age of 54. For some reason I just got over the fear of being found out and started drinking from the CD fire hose. Oh how things have changed in a relatively short amount of time. It's sad to imagine myself as a dormant little sprout with an unopened flower for so long.

[Mary Loo]

Interesting thread/discussion. I consider myself somewhere right in the middle.

I did first put on a skirt when I was maybe 5 or 6. My Mom had lots of clothes and used my closet for some overflow to store things she didn?t wear or maybe were seasonal, I can?t remember. Also, because I didn?t have a lot of hanging clothes of my own at the time so the closet was underutilized otherwise. Anyway, nothing more than curiosity hit me one day when bored. I made the mistake of mentioning it to my Mom later, and that was the last of her clothes in my closet.

I likewise had 2 several years older sisters and when they went off to college and I would come home from school to an empty house, in my adolescence I had fun trying on all clothes and such from all three of them. At this point my parents were divorced and the Master Bedroom where my one sister had previously lived had a huge double closet with some old clothes of their?s including dresses, plus our attic now had lots of my Mom?s old clothes. Again, originally out of boredom and adolescent raging hormones I killed time trying things on, but really never wore shoes, wigs, or makeup, mostly just clothes. Also, to clarify there was zero dressing between the first time and roughly 13ish.

By mid High School and the time I left for college there was very little opportunity to dress so I simply didn?t. Thus, back to my definition of both early and late bloomer. Sure I ?started? early but only took it so far. It wasn?t until I was about 55 and change before something re-sparked my enthusiasm and I bought some clothes for myself, and a couple wigs, and shoes, and have played with makeup. In other words sort of a late bloomer, too, though still fully closeted.

There are more details around all of this, but I posted all that early on when I found and joined the forum and no reason to take the time to rehash that all again, now.

I really don?t think the end result matters much relative to when you started or how long you have been crossdressing. It is more about where you are in your life and attitude right now and what you want out of it. I enjoy dressing and looking at myself in the mirror, but it is just something entertaining and fun for me to do, not really a lifestyle ( though I believe my wife might have a different opinion on that since she really isn?t a fan).

[DianeT]

Mary Loo's post made me realize that although I never stopped the dressing, it took a new dimension in my early fifties when I decided to go to the next level, buying wig, shoes, some jewelry and a few clothes to finally get a full attire and be presentable for the first time (presentable in a mirror, I don't go out). Months later, I decided to come out to my wife.