At a younger age, Amelia was most definitely a “she.” The Santa Rosa, California, resident was born a girl, raised as a girl and socialized with friends as a girl.
Somewhere along the way, Amelia’s feelings about gender identity started to change. Instead of identifying as a girl, Amelia began to feel different. About six months after turning 12, Amelia was ready to lean into a new life. The young person celebrated with new pronouns: they/them.
“I didn’t feel like a girl, but I never really felt like a boy, so I had to find something that was in the middle of both,” Amelia said. “I settled on pronouns that didn’t represent a gender but instead put me between two genders. That way it’s like I’m not a part of any gender or I can be both genders at the same time. My pronouns now put me at a place where I can decide between different genders. That feels right.”
Amelia, who now identifies as nonbinary, isn’t the only young person changing pronouns these days; across the country tweens and teens are embracing nongendered iterations of these familiar words.
Experts say three main factors are driving the phenomenon: More information about gender fluidity on the internet, a spike in the number of high-profile celebrities such as Demi Lovato and Nico Tortorella embracing nongendered pronouns, and pronouns showing up more frequently in communication technology.
Source : cnn
