Transage

Transage people are people who identify, relate, or affiliate with an age different than their chronological age based on their date of birth. It is derived from the term transgender. Transage is not "clovergender", which was a 4chan troll attempt. The term transage was coined in 2008 on UrbanDictionary by a user named teagreen. Another early use of the term includes LGBT+ activist and blogger Randolfe Wicker, who began identifying as transage on his profile some time in 2009. Worthy of note is that this is the first known person to identify as transage, and he is also transgender. There are also more notable examples such as Stefonknee Wolscht who was profiled in The Trans Project, and later interviewed in Xtra magazine.

The psychology behind transage comes from the fact that people can look and act younger or older than their age and feel like they should be able to identify with a different chronological age if they feel or look younger/older. The old saying "Age is just a number" also supports transage people, especially since numbers themselves are a concept made up by humans, and they have no effect on the biological or mental process of aging. The concept of time measurement supported by calendars, clocks, symbols, and birthday celebrations, along with legal documents recording a person's date of birth, are also artificial and the latter are the most modern of such methods, meaning age mattered less in past societies or was easier to conceal.

Furthermore, this is not a concept truly new to science. Magnus Hirschfeld, well known for being a pioneer for LGBT rights in the early 1900s and known for developing the first cross-sex medical treatments to aid transgender people, wrote about this phenomenon he personally witnessed. Additionally, the phenomenon of mentally younger transage people is similar in nature to Peter Pan Syndrome.

People who identify with a younger age tend to have been victims of poor parenting or didn't get to experience childhood to a desired extent and are trying to compensate for what they missed out on. Other potential factors include other forms of childhood trauma, growing up transgender (46% are transgender or nonbinary, n=266), autism (52% are autistic, n=156), and ADHD (20% are ADHD, n=156). People who identify with an older age tend to be gifted and declared as precocious early in their childhood.

Many transage people suffer from age dysphoria, which is comparable to gender dysphoria but with regard to age. It is this similarity between the conditions that is the primary cause for the usage of the term transage, as transage people's experiences with their identities and body and social struggles mirrors the experiences of transgender people. The two identities and dysphorias are clearly different, yet present in a similar manner. Age dysphoria comes in multiple forms, but the most common are physical and social age dysphoria.

For transage people who identify younger than their chronological age, especially those that identify as adolescents or children, common physical dysphoria symptoms include significant distress over one's height, shoulder width, bone structure, hip width, primary and secondary sex characteristics, facial and body hair, any visible signs of aging on one's skin (ie., acne), and more. These symptoms can be so severe as to cause or worsen depression and other mental illnesses. Suicidal thoughts and ideation are common among transage people, though the suicide attempt rate is not yet known or studied. It has been logically hypothesized by transage individuals that the severity of age dysphoria and its resulting destructive impact on one's life worsen over time as one gets chronologically and biologically older.

Common social dysphoria symptoms include an aversion to being addressed with any label generally assigned to adults; for example, the words "man" and "woman" may cause dysphoria even if the label matches the person's gender identity. Additionally, it causes distress at not being seen or treated as the age one truly is. This form of dysphoria may cause anxiety and avoidance symptoms in transage people, and contributes to their general isolation, loneliness, and suicidality.

As of now there exists little in the way of treatment for transage individuals, regardless of if they feel younger or older. Some therapists are understanding and accepting of transage individuals when told in detail about their experiences, yet they are few and far between (less than 15% when polled, n=59). There exists no social support structure for these individuals, and little to no effective medical transition options to alleviate dysphoria. The current treatment, such as it is, includes having people in one's life that support and accept the transage individual, as well as a focus on activities and clothing that affirm and support their identity. Age regression therapy can also help boost transage people's self-esteem to some extent. Other treatments, such as laser hair removal or electrolysis, can help reduce physical dysphoria slightly. As of now, no safe or effective surgery exists for reducing someone's height, or altering most aspects of their bone structure. However, it is possible to get clavicle-shortening surgery to reduce the width of the shoulders, which is moderately effective, but expensive and only performed by a few trained surgeons.

Transage people face very real and painful struggles. Despite this, the concept of transage has so far been rejected and ridiculed by society due to the potential of pedophiles using it to justify their attraction or actions, even though most people with a child's mentality or who want to befriend them are not sexually attracted to children. However, it is possible that in the future, society will come to understand and accept these individuals, especially as longevity science advances and differences between chronological, biological, and identified age become more visibly apparent, and as possible age-transition treatments become viable.

Symptoms

In societies with an emphasis on age, the following struggles are common among transage people:

• reluctance to verify their age when signing legal documents (e.g. someone who was homeschooled throughout their childhood and teen years has permanently lost the opportunity to attend elementary, middle or high school due to no available loophole around the proof of age field, and refuses to move on to college due to the lack of children there)
• frustration over boundaries having to be followed in friendships with minors that wouldn't have existed when they were the kids' ages (inability to be peers to children)
  • having to reduce oneself to a mentor, older sibling or parental figure in interactions with minors
• displeasure over their birthday, particularly milestone birthdays for things they don't want to do (e.g. adulting at 18, drinking at 21) or the "decade birthdays"
• discomfort over being sung "Happy Birthday" on their birthday
• being asked "How old are you?"
• lying about their age
• fear of being labeled a pedophile for being around non-related children
• being addressed by terms that do not match their age identity or have negative connotations meant to generalize (e.g. kid, kiddo, child, little boy/girl, child, young man/woman, guy, lady, chick, adult, teenager, teen, baby, middle aged, elder, senior citizen, old, young, (DECADE NUMBER)-something)
• shaving or using acne removal methods to look younger

References

This article "Transage" is from Simple English Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Transage.

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