Quote from: MarySue on September 07, 2008, 05:10:47 PM
I'm surprised by the number of people whose "first time" was when they were 10 or less.

If you don't mind my asking, what were the circumstances? I mean, did your parents dress you up as a girl? Or did you do it in secret? And if you did it in secret, how did you manage it??

When I was that age, there was no way I could have done that secretly. My parents kept too close a watch over me. At that age, all I could do was look at the girl's clothing section of the Sears catalog and dream.

In the early years it was mostly in private like at night where I would go to bed and change from the PJs into either a nightgown or just some undies. Other than that, it was when I was home by myself when I got the chance. That was mostly in the later years closer to 8-10 years old and beyond. I got caught by my brother at age 10 or so and had suppressed it a little after that, but it eventually went back to the same as before.

I was about 4 and I went to the neighbors house to play with their daughter. We went up to her room to play house and I put on one of her yellow dresses to play. Her Mom came in the room and made me change. She told my parents and after that my dad beat, verbally humiliated and sexually abused the sissy out of me. I didn't dress again until about 12 or 13.

It wasn't easy surviing being a soft boy. But then all of us know that.

11-15

I'm pretty sure thats when I started dressing.  Unfortunately I have no sisters, so I was forced to raid my moms closet.  I must of looked funny in the outfits I wore heh.  Before that I just felt like I was a girl but I don't think it manifested into dressing until later.

Very good question.

I know it was sometime between 11 and 15. I remember dressing up in my sister's clothes a lot after school.

the very first times i remember dressing up in female clothes was when i was at around 5-7, i did it secretly. and now i'm full-time female. i go out in public dressed as a girl .-.
no one notices that i'm transgender, which is great!

One of my earliest memories involves me wearing this little fuzzy white cardigan at about 3 that my mom had dressed me in and how pretty it made me feel. Not a female item of clothing per se probably but it did make me feel quite girly. Then at about 5 I remember posing in front of the mirror like the bikini models on TV, twisting my clothes and yanking up my underwear to make it more closely resemble what I saw; my grandma found me out once but said nothing, just sternly advised me not to let anyone other than my mother or herself "touch my behind" I was pretty scared of being found out after that (feminine behaviour was met with disapproval) so I don't remember any more of my mirror sessions until later on, at about age 7 or 8. Then abuse happened and I recoiled from any kind of dressing until about 13 when I discovered the dirty clothes pile and it was back to mirror sessions. Mostly underwear, since I started getting seriously bummed about my appearance from 10 on and thought myself an ugly, crazy misfire of life all my adolescence. Then 21 came and I discovered that other people dressed, bless the internet, and some even (gasp!) transitioned to living full time. Then moving to the other hemisphere with just a suitcase happened so I never actually went out fully dressed until 24 and shortly before deciding to transition. Not long after that, I got on hormones.

Gah... that was long.. sorry!

I was about 7. My mom made me wear a dress, pantyhose, heels, and a bra to see how it would look on my sister as a present. Well I loved it alot. Then another time when my sister an I went trick or treating and we switched costumes to re visit houses and get more candy(My idea, a year ago)I liked being a cheer-leader! Ever since then I have been doing it. Then just this past year(Im so giddy) She had me try on her prom dresses at the store for size reference; I made it akaward when I asked to wear pantyhose and heels to make it more realistic.  she said no, but I insisted and I stuffed a bra to make it look more realistic. I come out of the room wearing a dress much like this http://www.camdendrive.com/orange-prom-dress-L3779.html
And who do I see near me? A girl from school. all she said was "I like your heels they match your dress"

 I remamber being like 4 and a friend and I were playing dress up and when we left her room her family laughed at me and i changed and went home crying. ever since dressing has made me depressed. i don`t dress female anymore and may never again. But I am changing my body to be one though. Well, maybe girls pants and tank tops.

Quote from: MarySue on September 07, 2008, 05:10:47 PM
I'm surprised by the number of people whose "first time" was when they were 10 or less.

Well I for one thought the question was how many years ago did you first dress and that was less than five years ago for me, about age 20 or 21. I didn't get around to dressing until I figured I was transsexual. Now I'm of two minds, because on one hand, I would like to have nice size breasts, but on the other hand, bras really annoy me.

Apparently I was running around in my female cousin's clothes when I was 3, but I don't remember that.
The first time I consciously recall making the decision to wear girl's clothes was when I was five - helping myself to my sister's wardrobe.

Hi
I remeber 4-5, I took my (2yr older) sisters dress into the toilet and tried it on. Didn't know why. Throughout 9-16 regularly at home, caught a number of times ( see separate threads). At University fairly regulsrly in public, but jeans and T - mainly unisex. Went to Australia and full time outside work but not public. Now full time outside work and increasingly in public. 2009 resolutions, start electrolysis/ laser. Maybe hormones.

Cindy James

Make believe, earlier in my life when I was a kid I plaid a lot of pretend games. I was a loner and an outsider so I had a lot of time to play imagination games and some of those games included playing being a girl, stole clothes and dressed up where ever I could where I thought no one would find me.

I also remember on occasion during my preschool years I had long hair my mom would put ribbons in it and dress me up in a dress. I beleive that was something common in those days, I never realy asked about it though. I also use to play house and dress up occasionally with the neighbors daughter and I would get dressed up for tea parties. Unfortunately this all ended by the time I was 7 years old when someone decided I was getting to old to be playing with girls or something like that.   

At the time I thought I was just playing pretend, no different then any of the other pretend games I played. Until I got into my early teens I discovered my interest in girls had changed and it had nothing to do with physical sexual attraction.I was deeply and secretly envious of these girls and some times to the point of hurting and crying for the need to want to be a girl.

During my teen I buried up with this girl, tom boy and cast away like me. We ran together for 5 years and had a few scrapes with a local policeman who kept threatening to throw us in the drunk tank. I remember one night he brought both of us to my moms house, mom had never met Helen yet. The nice officer pushes us ahead of him into the house and takes his hat off with his left hand and says to my mom. You know mam, you shouldn't be letting your two daughters run around about town loos like this by themselves this late at night. That cop became our best ally.

I also ran away from home when I was 15 years old and ended up living in a commune with the Hippies for nearly two years. I passed quite well as a girl back then, my hair was butt length wearing unisex clothes and I was housed with the girls, did the cooking and housekeeping along with the rest of the girls. Did arts and crafts and also went down town a group of us at a time to sell our wears. There aren't to many days go by that I don't wish I had known about transitioning way back then.

Cindy

Hey Y'all

         The first time for me was when I was 7 or 8, my sister's underware. I pretty much wore them all the time. Wearing them made me feel like, at least a small part of my outside matched the way I felt on the inside. I got caught when my brother and I got into a fight in the car on the way home from the store. Mama marched us into our room for a spanking. She insisted that we drop our pants but I pleaded with her not to make me. Finialy I had to. Mama freaked and a spanking turned into a beating. With her screaming at me,"Never let me catch you doing this again!" and me sobbing,"I just wanted to know how they felt." and "I promise, I wont do it again." Of coarse y'all can imagine that was just the beginning. Mama never punished me like that over "the phase I was going through" again. Thirty plus years later, while talking about the episode, after telling her of my plans to transition, she said she freaked because she was terrified of what my homophobic, self centered, bigoted father would do, if he found out.

                                                                     Always Love,
                                                                     Heather Rose

quite young, i remember stealing one of my mums dresses to pretend it was a robe for some wizard game me and my sister played. Tbh, i didnt really care for it much, i hated how i looked, and i never felt right wearing girls clothes in a boys body. First time i really actually wore all girls clothes? i was just 20, and it was after 3 months hrt

I wore a dress for the first time when I was 5 or 6 and really liked it (I was around one of my families houses). Then I didn't do it again until last year in about November (though I wore bits and bobs of female clothing (like long socks, gloves etc.)...though I did often wish I could wear women's clothing from about 2004-last year.

Using Imagination to help you in transition.

I always enjoyed, actually lived for attention for as far back as memory can reach. I loved doing the clown act and get people to laugh, I still do. I thrive on it!

Now this brings us to about twelve years ago, when GID reared its head to where it ran rampant, out of control, if you know what I mean. It was around that time I began my first tentative steps into the real world in the female gender role. But my using imagination as a way to escape from reality and live as myself in imagination helped me to find who the inner-self was.

You may read the rest of my story in my blog bellow.

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,44860.0.html

Cindy

I imagine folks who did not have a sister were not able to dress until they grew old enough to wear their mother's clothes.  I'd be interested to see a cross reference with age of dressing versus sisters or no sisters.

Please .... a "->-bleeped-<-" thread ?

Sure I played about with clothes, make-up, and "stuff" when I was a youngster ... mom's clothes and things.

But as I got older it wasn't at all about clothes, but about identity and how I wanted people to see me ... clothes were peripheral.

As I am now I live in my jeans, but really enjoy shopping for clothes and accessories that I rarely have a chance to wear ...

C'est la vie ...

Laura x

Sorry Laura
I didn't take this as a ->-bleeped-<- thread, more of a when did you realise you were TG, even if you didn't understand the concept at the time.

Cindy J

So you never wore boy clothes? Would have been cross dressing then by your definition.

I don't think anyone was asking if you cross dressed. They were asking when the first time was you dressed in female clothing.