A little boy grows up in a home where he’s not forced to be anything. He grows up in a home where the father doesn’t force anything upon him. The little boy isn’t forced to be anything or do anything so the little boy does things simply because that’s what he wants to do.

He plays with barbie dolls and let’s his sister paint his nails or dress him up in girl clothes. The little boy doesn’t see anything wrong with this but he’s young. The little boy hasn’t experienced the outside world. He doesn’t know what people think about boys like him.

Then he grows up. He goes to daycare and meets people for the first time. He tends to hang around the girls more and they accept him. They can tell he’s a little different than the other boys but he’s nicer. The little boy is the sweetest, kindest person they had met. He thought everyone should be accepted but then the boys found out about him.

The boys found out he was more feminine and liked ponies, dancing and the colour pink. They bullied the little boy. They hit him and scratched him and told him to “man up.” The little boy cried and started to doubt himself. He started to stray from the girls and stopped talking to his sister about anything that was remotely girly.

He started getting less sweet. He stopped being so kind and developed anger issues. The little boy started getting dependant on eating and watching television and playing video games.

Even through all this, the little boy was still a little feminine and started getting called gay. He grew up in a world where it was wrong and he didn’t want to be something that wrong so he denied it and his issues got even worse. He ate even more, he got angrier easier, he stopped talking to his sister and only talked to his brother, he stopped dancing so much, he stopped playing dress up, he stopped being so kind to others and most of all, he stopped being himself.

In another instance, there was a little girl. The little girl grew up in the same type of home and liked playing with pirates and G.I. Joe action figures. She wore more boyish clothes and wasn’t interested in barbie dolls or playing dress up. The little girl liked dinosaurs and racecars and superheroes and comic books. She liked playing with the boys and hated makeup.

But then, she too met more people. She wanted to be friends with the guys but they thought the way she dressed was stupid and made fun of her. After that she tried to make friends with the girls but they just laughed and told her to leave them alone.

The little girl was so confused as to why nobody liked her. She never thought anything was ever wrong with her but then again, there had to be something since no one seemed to like her.

Then, one day a group of boys and girls found her alone, playing with her action figures. They made fun of her and told her that she was stupid for acting like a boy. They told her she was just trying to be different and that she should just act like a normal girl would. They started taking her things and tearing them apart piece by piece.
The little girl was crying now as the group of kids laughed at her and kicked her a few times. After that day, she went through depression and never thought she was good enough for anyone but then she got an idea. The little girl just had to be like all the other girls, right? She just had to be normal and fit in. She started painting nails, doing dress up with her little brother, playing with barbie dolls and ponies, getting her dad to buy her more girly clothes and most importantly, like the little boy, she stopped being herself.

These two had so much in common. They both grew up in a home where the father didn’t force gender roles upon them and told them to be who they wanted to be. They both acted a little differently than is expected for their gender and because of that, they both got bullied.

They both wanted to deny what they were like as a child. The little boy constantly tells his sister that he never liked barbies or My Little Pony. The little girl is constantly telling her family that she always liked playing dress up and whatever else she thinks of as girly.

People who have always known the little boy and girl know what they used to like but they choose not to bring it up because it’ll just upset them.

We live in a world where, just because of your gender, you’re expected to do certain things. A girl needs to like makeup, dresses and high heels, painting nails or getting fake ones and like the colour pink. A boy needs to be athletic and like sports, be a little more rude, be fit and hate the colour pink.

But sometimes, that’s just not how it works. People are different and interested in a variety of different things. The little boy and girl stopped being who they wanted to because it wasn’t right. The boy now has an eating disorder and doesn’t like doing anything and the girl has had depression for years and thinks everyone else is better than her.

If people keep getting things forced upon them because they were born a certain gender, more people are going to stop being who they want to be. If you aren’t who you want to be, then who are you really? Do you think the little boy and girl like these new people they’ve created? Do you think they’re happy with themselves, being these people who are the opposite of them?

The answer to that is simple: no. The little boy and girl don’t like these new personas and neither do countless other people who have went through the same thing. So what if a boy is more feminine and a girl is more masculine? There’s nothing wrong with them and they shouldn’t be bullied for it.

Don’t make anyone think they’re wrong for liking what they like or who they like because they’re not. You’re the wrong one for telling them that. Everyone should learn to be more accepting but we can’t live in a perfect world. Hopefully, one day gender roles will be forgotten and people will be nicer but right now, all you can really do is accept people for who they are. If the little boy and girl had someone, they would’ve ended up better but they didn’t. It’s sad but they’re not the only ones.