= on being otherkin =
A subculture of individuals who identify as partially or entirely nonhuman. Some otherkin believe their identity derives from non-physical spiritual phenomena ... Some otherkin give non-spiritual explanations for themselves, such as unusual psychology or neurodivergence, or as part of dissociative identity disorder or being plural.
Many otherkin say they are physically human.
- English Wikipedia
A therian feels like an animal on every level- except physical.
most my friends know im otherkin. to be specific, i happen to be a therian: a person who identifies specifically with animals. can you guess which one I identify with the most? /rhetorical
it's one thing that i kept hidden a lot on my previous website, mostly due to how "cringe" it is percieved to be therian, but i'll admit, i've grown enough to understand that it's an extremely harmless thing that brings me a lot of happiness; and also something that's important and special to me.
personally, for me it's a lot associated with having adhd and autism (some of my traits happen to look animalistic) as well as being queer and aspec ("love is what makes you human" is a very common sentiment, and i do not love in a conventionally accepted way), but i'll admit, for me, it's even a cultural/spiritual thing - connecting with theriantropy feels like connecting with nature; connecting with nature feels like connecting with my ancestors.
- werewolf
- wolf
- dog
- dragon (sometimes)
- other animal (rarely)
- plush
DOGKIN: theres basically almost non stop a dog running around inside of my head. i love seeing dogs outside, it makes me feel happy.
WOLFKIN: wolves specifically are really special and dear to my heart — they have some unique charm to them. i really love brown furred wolves; eurasian wolf which exists in north ukraine, the region i call home, is my favorite.
WEREWOLFKIN: this one is... Ill admit, just what being queer feels like to me. ("monstrous", not properly human, born wrong, have to hide a secret) I'll admit I relate slightly more to ukrainian cursed werewolves more than to traditional western ones; a cursed werewolf is a being with a human mind stuck in a body of a beast, not able to prove that they are human (if you're trans you might relate) — but the good old regular "oh shit its the full moon. Awooooooo" is relatable to me, too.
DRAGONKIN: dragons are cute and adorable and majestic and — i typically am not a fan of a lot of things that are considered part of asexual pop culture (like, i couldnt care for jokes about liking garlic bread or cake) but DRAGONS? Hoo boy. I remember wanting to have wings ever since i was a child, and I don't think I need to explain my love for hoarding things: just look at how many collections this site got!
OTHER ANIMALS: i spent a large amount of my life wearing cat ears, so that says domething about me. creatures like bunnies feel relatable to me, too.
PLUSHKIN: sometimes instead of a Real-like Beast, my self-image is. A Plush. Soft and nice, cannot speak but you know it loves you, looks cute. being autistic does this to you, i guess .
FOR THE FUTURE: ^ i hope to add a little gallery of all these types since collecting images and all of these creatures/things make me really, really happy.
vast majority of us doesn't really feel bad saying we are!
but a lot of us, especially neurodivergent people (think of people with adhd, autism, and other conditions) do have a complicated relationship with humanity and assigned to it traits, notably by the fact that we are DEHUMANIZED. when it's so common to treat us as non-human, it's only natural that some might say "screw you", reclaim that non-humanity, and find some joy and comfort in it.
that's far from the only reason why someone might be otherkin, but i'm using it as a simple example!
some of us are kids wearing cat masks in public parks; some of us are regularly-looking tired adults who work at local grocery stores and take your orders in a restaraunt; none of us inherently hurt anyone. it's okay if you don't understand it, just let us live our lives.
furry typically refers to someone's interest in art involving humanized-to-some-degree animals, which might manifest in them having a character that represents them which is an animal (a fursona).
therian is when you very much imagine yourself, directly, as an animal (theriantype)!
because furry community tends to have a long history and a heavy adult focus, while therian community is recent and has a lot of young people in it, some tend to dislike the association between the two.
you might very much be! and it's fun to research a little on the topic. "alterhuman" and "otherhearted" are some additional words you might wanna google and think about. it's okay if you will read and figure out you're otherkin, and it's also very much fine if you're not. just be you, whoever you might be.
i hope to expand on this section and fill it with fun images and such! for now, have cool pngs of plush wolves.
