"In 6th grade i was pretty sure girls had cooties and thought my friends who had started liking them were traitors. over the summer, it all changed. but imagine if some goon had leaned on me and said “yes, absolutely! you feel that way because you’re a girl!” and tried to prevent my hormonal expression."

This is why I find the medical transition of minors particularly horrifying. I remember vividly being a 12-year-old girl whose body matured a lot faster than her mind. Suddenly, I had the body of a woman - but still had the brain of a child. I had zero interest in being a teenager, being fashionable, having boyfriends, going on dates, being popular, wearing makeup, etc.. - I just wanted to build forts in the woods with my friends and be a kid forever.

The boys my age would chant "she's got BOOBIES!" and snap my bra strap; while at the same time I was getting unwanted sexual attention from older boys and men, which was terrifying to me. I didn't see any upside to this puberty thing at all so if someone had told me "oh, that means you're trans! here, have some hormones and surgeries!" I would have jumped at the offer.

By the time I was 15, my brain had caught up to my body and I quite enjoyed being female. I still liked a lot of stereotypical "boy" things, but that was fine - it meant I had lots of friends who were boys, some of whom turned into boyfriends. I was a weird girl, but definitely a girl nonetheless.