Post by abandonedknowledge on Jun 21, 2023 17:22:41 GMT
I have always been quite aware of the otherkin community and people who were nonhuman, but I guess I'd say I first heard of the community in detail when I started to make my own personal pride flags of this year. I've obviously heard of it long ago but I had no interest in it at the time. I had mutuals on twitter and accounts I followed who often made otherkin, aldernic and nonhuman flags. I have always felt distinctly nonhuman, but never truly placed a name on it or even researched into it. But when I saw all those flags, and how popular it was I thought I'd actually try to do my research
I stumbled across a LJ community dedicated to otherkin stuff a long time ago. I didn't realize that I was otherkin, even though I was calling myself an alien and a machine and stuff. I thought it was weird but left it alone. A few years ago I realized that yeah, I'm otherkin, and that's why I keep insisting that I'm not human. (Oh the irony.)
“All we ever see of stars are their old photographs.” ― Alan Moore, Watchmen
I believe I was first exposed to the community through social media back when Instagram was its old self. Either that or through YouTube. This is why I greatly appreciate those who choose to contribute content to the community as it helps greatly with exposure. The internet is our strongest tool.
Last Edit: Jun 26, 2023 19:03:10 GMT by DrDisRespect
i played on a virtual pet site when i was in my teens (early 2000s) and there was an active therian community in the forums there. it intrigued me, so i ended up reading about the silver elves, vampires, and otherkin too. around that time, fictionkin was commonly referred to as otakukin, and there was less info on it from what i can recall. i identified with therians the most at that time because of our cat ears, but i didn't participate because my peers irl at the time thought it was weird/creepy. i kept my eye on the community from the sidelines for most of my life, undercover and trying to convince myself i was a normal human who just had a powerful imagination. we also had suspicions that we were plural when we first heard about it later, and followed a similar path of denial/masking until our diagnosis.
I found someone talking about their phantom shifts and dreams on Scratch, that one coding website. This was in 2015, maybe? But I had known I had a strange affinity for my 'types since 2009-2010, so it was cool to learn there was as term for it. However! I never looked any further than that until 2021, when I started properly lurking. And now I'm actually dipping my toes into the water. So cool to hear everyone's experience!
Post by psyberserval on Sept 22, 2023 19:33:59 GMT
TikTok, which i’d expect you to be worried about but thankfully I didn’t fall down a rabbit hole of misinformation and toxicity. I found quadrobics compilations and thats how I found the term therian. It was an immediate click, but I made sure to do my research first before using the term. That was around July, two years ago. Then I joined the site Kinmunity in August of the same year and finally found the term fictionkin.
Last Edit: Sept 25, 2023 20:54:41 GMT by psyberserval
Oh man, I found the term "otherkin" back in highschool, on a GaiaOnline (showing my age here) thread in the discussion/debate section. At the time, I was very into debating various topics (what we'd now have to call "good faith debate") and it caught my eye, so I read through a number of For and Against posts before writing my own. I wrote up this huge post about how it was all stupid and nonsense because you see -I- did/felt all of those things and -I- didn't call myself otherkin.
I don't remember if I posted it--I kinda doubt it. Highschool!me realized reading it back through, that.. I didn't have any real argument beyond that I didn't use those terms for myself.
So I spent several months doing soul-searching, meditation, and a lot of research. Then I found an otherkin/therian forum and poked my head in to say hello as a therian.
❝We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.❞ ─ Jonathan Gottschall
Post by chimeracoleopteran on Oct 9, 2023 0:58:19 GMT
Unfortunately... I heard about it first through those old "anti-SJW" channels or whatever. I was like, 12, and grew out of that pretty quick- it was in the middle of deconstructing a lot of the nastier beliefs I had picked up from that time, that I realized that I had never heard the other side of the story regarding otherkin. And it resonated so deeply with me, which was kind of alarming- I had always felt homesick, wherever I went, and some part of me pretty immediately recognized the answer when I discovered it. It just took a while to fully accept and understand it all.
I, uh, well I was looking for youtube videos of how to physically shift because I wanted so badly to be able to. I learned about therians after that, after probably a years worth of experimenting and facing reality. I joined a therian pack on deviantart in 2010 I think and some other forum and came to understand the community and myself better. I was a stupid, lonely kid that just had just suffered the first heartbreak of my little life and was looking for an escape, it was all very angsty. Little Snowshoe was working through some shit.
I actually heard of it from a friend back in 2018! I was explaining to him how I just dont feel connected to humanity and how being a human is unsettling(?) to me. He told me about his friend who was(is?) monsterkin and he told me about the otherkin community. I myself have been on a wild journey to find myself. I've always connected with Fae and dogs. Its been forever since finding myself. I remember joining the community itself in 2019.
-Gabe the polymorph & dogkin // Any/all // transmasc-
Post by chimeracoleopteran on Dec 1, 2023 1:55:42 GMT
Well... I heard about it first from one of those anti-SJW types, regrettably. I'm still pretty embarrassed about that time in my life, and rightfully so, I think.
A few years down the line, I ended up having to unpack a loooot of internalized stuff, especially when I came out as trans. I started running into therians and otherkin online more often, and I decided it was worth a second look; I didn't want to generalize an entire community from misconceptions I absorbed as a 13 year old.
And... it started to resonate with me! A lot. I learned everything I could about the community and its history, before I even considered questioning my own humanity. It took me a while to understand myself and my place in it, but I knew I felt at home.
Post by House of Chimeras on Dec 8, 2023 17:15:21 GMT
(Oh man, we haven't heard the name Goldenwolfen in relation to therianthropy in years.)
For us, it was in 2003* with the airing of the documentary, Animal Imitators. One of the people interviewed was Coyote, the founder/original admin of Werelist website. He used the term "were" in the interview but that term was still commonly used back then too. It was also then that we were introduced to the term "transspecies" too.
Other people interviewed for the documentary included several Stalking Cat along with several furries and body modification enthusiasts.
(* Wow, over 20 years ago, that the heck... we were 14 years old back then...)
In 2016, I didn't have a Tumblr account but I would lurk on cringe compilation blogs like "byf-cringe" where I first saw therians and otherkin mentioned. The magnitude of how much I related on a deep down level to this ridiculous concept of people identifying as animals made me re-evaluate my ideals, really consider who it was I was mocking and why. After that I went on my main social media at the time, Quotev, and just searched "therian." Found this kind of primer guide by a hyena -- the first other therian I'd ever really seen -- that went over what therianthropy was, what it wasn't, and most importantly, types of shifts. I'd always had phantom shifts my whole life, tails, ears, wings, claws, etc., and seeing it written out on the Internet by another person that this was a real thing and had a name was my Awakening.
Years ago as a kid with unrestricted internet access Definitely from some "cringe" video bashing otherkins I always thought it was cool despite the cringe comps saying other wise Years later I got into the fictionkin community and now this year the nonhuman community