I had to grow up pretty darn quickly. My childhood was care-free until I first noticed gender differences aged 5 and figured out that my parents & teachers were forcing me into the wrong group of kids. I don't have any memories of myself younger than 5 so in effect I had a very brief childhood of just a couple of months before my GD started.
Puberty started the following year - 6 freaking years old, for crying out loud! - and my dysphoria really started going into overdrive over the next few years.
Then my folks got divorced - another trial that caused a leap in my maturity - and my mother married an abusive alcoholic. At the same time my traitorous body decided to become very feminine in appearance. Happy days.
Shoot forward a couple of years and my Mum got breast cancer. She'd split from the abusive alcoholic by that stage but was still raising his son (who was 3 when Mum was diagnosed). So I had to learn how to help raise a young boy and nurse my sick mother whilst still in my teens myself, eventually adopting my brother after Mum died. I was the youngest parent at his high school by about 20 years, which earned me some very judgemental looks.
So yeah. My life has never been age-appropriate and I've always had to cope with much more than I should. But then again, haven't most of us?
Right now, because of my height and my lack of T I pretty much present as a teenage boy. I'm still quite youthful looking (mid-20s) so I get away with it. I'm taking this opportunity to try to live some of the youth I was never able to, whilst I still have an opportunity.
