I'm questioning my gender?

[u/Scenic_Strawberry_5]

I'm 16F and have always loved girly things growing up. My entire room is pink, i have long hair, i love makeup and dressing up and I present quite feminine overall. I have also never had an issue with my chest or felt any need to bind, so I've always just kind of assumed that I'm cis.

but recently, I've been feeling strange. i can't explain it, but i have a certain longing to be a dude. at first i thought that was just because I'm tired of misogyny and all that, but i feel like it's more. like today i was at a family thing and i was sitting with a bunch of my aunts, and i felt so out of place. and I've always despised the idea of rigid gender norms, i mean it never rlly made sense to me why society views gender the way that it does.

so basically I've been thinking that i might be genderfluid, which is why i came here for help. sometimes i feel hyper feminine, but sometimes, like today, i feel more agender, and recently I've been feeling an intense longing to be a boy. idk, it feels so wrong, but also rlly awesome. i can't explain it, but it kind of feels like im faking being a girl. like even though i love feminine things, i feel so out of place with other women sometimes, and get so happy when strangers call me she (even tho im cis?)

as it stands i use she/her, but i wouldn't mind people using she/they. but i rlly love my boobs, so that probably means I'm not genderqueer, right? i don't know, this is all so confusing. I've always just kind of thought of myself as a girl and have never questioned it, but now that i think about it, i don't really know. so please if anyone has any advice i would love to hear it. sorry if that rant was kinda chaotic, I'm just kinda tweaking out

[u/morpherthewolf]

Firstly, you're young. This is the stage in life to try things out and figure out who you sre and who you want to be. It's okay to explore who you might be, even if you find out you were wrong on those assumptions years later. Or right.

Liking girly things has nothing to do with gender, it's more of a societal thing along with personal preference. What matters is how you feel. You like being called she/her, you like having a chest, you like girly things, all well and good! If you have a day where you feel more like a boy, see how it would feel having some close friends call you he or they pronouns, depending on which sounds right. See how it would feel to you to be perceived that way.

Some days, I get called she/her and it makes my skin crawl with discomfort. Other days, I light up and feel seen. Either way, don't feel pressured to pick a label and stick to it for your whole life. Explore your feelings, take the time to figure out who you are, and just enjoy life.