I keep seeing people talking about how a lot of trans people feel our childhoods were stolen, and that’s a massive mood. That feeling more or less pervaded my existence up until even my mid twenties.

But for me it had nothing to do with being trans.

It’s a feeling that’s often shared by people who were seriously abused as children; who were expected through apathy, depression, or forced by some mishap to care for their parents; who were orphaned and never had a chance to be kids, etc.

And I feel like this is important.

There are many levels to this, but two points I want to bring out here:

1) It’s a common experience for people who’ve undergone intense trauma as kids. The fact that so many trans people can relate to this ought to tell us something as a society.

2) There’s a conversation to be had about the way society sets false expectations for what childhood is supposed to be, and how this contributes to the intensity of what people who go through this experience.

This is super difficult, because it can look like victim-blaming.