Assumptions have been made (about me) and now I'm beyond confused and desperately need advice.
I (16F) was giving the opportunity to become a scare actor for a haunted trail last year to help raise money for our theatre production. I'd always wanted to do something like that so I immediately volunteered. For some background knowledge I live in Minnesota, where the second October hits, you can't feel your hands/feet but you can see your breath pretty much 24/7. Because it gets so cold outside, your costume has to be loose enough where you can wear 4+ layers if needed. I got a clown costume from spirit halloween a size up from what I normally wear so I would be able to layer comfortably. Even with the amount of layers I wore, the costume was still loose enough that you really couldn't see the true shape of my body. The shapeless costume + a full face of clown face paint and fake bl00d everywhere, you really couldn't tell if I was a girl or boy. Everything about my costume was very intentional, I've been harassed one too many times for simply being a teen girl and existing, so to protect and make myself more comfortable, I wanted to seen as genderless. My plan worked well to say the least because most of the people who came through the trail used they/them and he/him pronouns on me, I didn't mind it so much purely because you really couldn't tell my gender. I only really started to question gender identity when other scare actors started exclusively using they/them pronouns for me. Some of the other actors were also in my theatre production, so they started using they/them for me at rehearsal as well. Things like this spread like wildfire at my school, so it didn't take long before everyone (administration, councilors, teachers, students, etc.) started using they/them pronouns for me. In most ways this really didn't bother me a whole ton. From the outside I look and do a decent amount of things that are associated with being non-binary, I wear baggy clothes, I don't like wearing my hair down, I hide my chest as much as physically possible, and 99% of my friends are some flavor of LGBTQIA+ and I myself am bisexual. Labels have always been something I struggle with, it took a long time to come to terms with my bisexuality and now I have no idea how to label by gender identity. My main issue is I've always been more masculine but every now and then I like feeling a bit girly and actually feel good wearing a dress and corset. No matter how I feel, my style is very dark and almost entirely black and dark green. When I do feel more "girly", I feel it in the sense of being whimsical and witchy, almost like an evil character in a theatre production that can be cast as a boy or a girl and it doesn't effect the storyline. I'm comfortable with she/her/they/them pronouns. I don't know how to describe myself, I know being trans is going from one gender to another but I'm still a girl and use she/her but I also want to use they/them. I would really like some help and advice to find the label that fits me and how I feel.
Posted Jun 23, 2026, 9:05 PM UTC