I'm with the Reddiors here, he child has to be taken off the internet and needs a hobby outside of socials, and mom has to supervise everything she does online. When I was 9, I wanted to be a dinosaur and chase other children around, but I had not the slightest clue what a therian is. In fact, I had to google it today (as it turned out, it's not the same as furries at all, those I know) and seems to be some sort of spirituality thing. The kid must have come across it on some socials, and places like these get weird really really fast, so her contact to these people should be stopped immediately. If she's really interested in therianthropy, she can pick that up again when she's older and more experienced with life.

Yeah honestly the thing I'm most worried about is the kid knowing about therians. I'm a furry myself, but I did not fully even know what it was until I was like 16. Before I knew what it was, I was just like "yeah anthro animals are cool and I like to draw them". When I got older I found out there was a community for it. It's normal kid logic to like that type of stuff. The therian community goes wayyy deeper then just acting like an animal (which is what most kids think it is). Let the kid play pretend, it's part of being a kid. But please be careful what type of stuff they come across on the internet.

At that age, I was firmly convinced that if I injected myself with a bit of animal blood, I would be able to get some of their traits. So I was on a quest for cheetah blood to become the fastest runner in the world. In my defence, in our traditional stories, people can transform into animals by wearing their pelts but I didn't want to hurt them. My logic was that DNA gives you the traits you have, it can be found in blood so obviously you can just browse through the traits like you would in a book and pick the ones that you like. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Got to love kid logic.

Every nine-year-old boy wants to be a train driver. They aren't making life decisions at that age. Settle down.

Meh, it's normal kid logic. It's a step in finding out who you are and what makes you special. It's the same as when kids dress up as batman, just with animals. It's probably like a game or something. "I'm a bunny" okay "Have a carrot".

I do want to add that the best thing to do is let her outgrow it at her own pace, because it most likely is at her age. Let her do her thing, and in a month or two she'll probably forget about it. Yes, there are bad sides to every community, but as long as she's not actively a part of the online community she won't be in any sort of danger.

When I was a kid I went through a phase of desperately wanting to become a dinosaur. I used to wish for it every night before I went to sleep. I had fantasies about putting on a dinosaur suit that would turn me into one (so I could defeat the bullies). This was long before the internet and even longer before "furries" was a label so far as I know. I had undiagnosed autism and major self esteem issues, so it was an escape for me. Later on in childhood I really got into novels about anthro animal characters, like the Redwall and Deptford Mice series (they're both awesome, by the way), and then started writing books of my own in a similar vein. I remember saying I didn't want to write about human characters because I hate humans. I grew out of it in the end. But yeah, definitely keep this kid away from the furry forums because goddamn those places can get creepy.

I'd rather be a cat sometimes too. This human thing, having to work sucks.

….. why would the mom flip and freak out bc of that, my grandma, counsellor and brother supports me and I think, wow I feel bad for that kid because ima Therian and trans and I get support for it by few people so Im closeted from most people, ngl reading that made me cry for a lil bit

What this child needs is therapy. Not because what they are thinking is wrong or harmful, but because they are being bullied and they are young and they need guidance in making life choices. Maybe the therapist will help her see she's a person, or maybe the therapist will make her feel happy with how she sees herself and help her handle people who bully her. But she needs therapy.

I would count that as a phase, 9 year olds are still in the process of developing their personality and interests. Having a neutral talk about the topic and acceptable behaviour in social situations would be the best way to handle that in a healthy way. In the end it's probably that their friends are in a werewolf phase or read the "Animorphs" book series, looked up the internet about the theme and stumbled about the whole therian thing. If the mother wants she could also ask Furries about the topic if she wants to know more prior to the talk (In fandom forums, NOT on Twitter), despite the common opinion the fandom is quite reasonable and not about grooming children or all about NSFW themes only. (Pedophilia is indeed a very heated topic within the fandom, with the conclusion that fictional content being acceptable at best but promoting, advertising representation under the LGBQT+ community or displaying it openly being an absolute no-go border that should never be crossed)

I'm sorry, what is a therian?

I have been a therian for almost a year now, therianthropy is not a mental illness or a phase, little kids that have access to YouTube may see a video about a therian and think that it might be cool to be a therian, Therianthropy is not a choice and you cannot "become" a therian. you must be born a therian and awaken as one to identify as a therian. Therians know they are human and know they have human hands, feet, faces, etc. therianthropy is not all about wearing masks and tails or doing quadrobics (the sport of walking, trotting, cantering, and jumping on all fours, look it up) it is only a way to express therianthropy. it is not a belief or a religion.not all therians are furries, there is a large difference between therians and furries. therians are not part of the LGBTQ+ spectrum and we are not autistic. I don't care if people support therians, just please respect them and don't go up to one screaming "furry" there is nothing wrong with us, please leave us alone.

She 9. End of conversation. But I would ask, in what way material or immaterial does her identifying this way change anything in her life or her moms or literally anyones? Obviously rhetorical.

So hate the comments acting like the furry community as a whole is predatory. Yes theres trash ppl in it but the ACTUAL community shin them/boot them out/out them/refuse to acknowledge them as one of them. Stop roping all furries as pədøs

id be wondering where the 9 year old found out what that was, my son goes on the internet at home but our computer is in the living room where we can see exactly what he goes on, plus having parental controls helps too so id ask the school to make sure that they supervise what children can access, it wont stop it completely but it will reduce the chances of kids being exposed to stuff they're too young for

it kinda hurts my feeling that people hate/dislike therains when we did nothing wronge if we want to be therain then let us be hat

I am in 12-year-old therian I am personally happy that she is coming out to express her feelings and the sorry I mean it is also healthy because she is spending more time outside like other people should do

Therians are people who no pnhysically identify as animals, or sometimes they claim its a brain wiring thing, or other times its a spiritual thing, there really is no ‘one definition fits all’ in their community, I would draw the line at dressing/acting like an animal in public, I’ve seen way too many Therians jumping and crawling in public, for starters it might get your kid bullied or targeted by men, and also its just not sanitary or publicly decent to do so, many get bullied and shouted at in public too, there are videos online of Therians actively being attacked because of how they dress and act, and then theres the past life explanation where they think their past life was an animal so they’re gonna act like one now, and finally theres the soul animal thing, I think a soul animal should just be a little “cool my soul animal is XYZ” and thats it, the majority of the community are kids anyways so they’ll forget about it and grow up eventually. Sorry if I rambled

I'd like to say this: I am a therian, it is NOT a phase, and is NOT something you can change. Quick edit: I'm a snow leopard, Siberian tiger and red panda! I have shifts often, and I'm also kin with my character Nostalgia. THIS. IS. NOT. A. PHASE. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH US. seriously.

I joke I'm half dryad (the other half is, of course, raccoon!) but at the end of the day, I'm 100% human 😉

Crikey O’Blimey - it’s so daft that I couldn’t give a serious answer 😀

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All of you people are deluded and most of you are still children. Why are we shaping society off the whims of children??

As a therian, I want to answer some stuff here. 1. It is NOT a phase. Some people go through a phase like what you say, but therianthropy is a spiritual and physiological belief and identity that I think should not be slotted with childhood phases. 2. It is NOT sexual. The majority of therians are just therians. They don’t feel attracted to animals. That is disgusting. Therians should not be included with the disgusting ‘community’ of zoophiles. 3. It is involuntary. The simple definition of therianthropy is identifying as a nonhuman animal on a nonphysical level based off of involuntary experiences. I do think a 9 year old shouldn’t have access to social media like that, though

It's almost like you can't stop a kid from doing whatever they want in their head. You can make them cling to it forever and hide it from you though. So...you know...which ever you'd prefer she does...

This stuff is getting ridiculous. No she isn't an animal, it doesn't matter what she feels or even if she gets surgery later in life to better resemble an animal. She will always be a girl, and then a woman. It's not up for debate, these are the facts.

Give your young kids access to an online world and you're asking for trouble, especially social media exposure. I don't think smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc. have anyplace in a kids possession.

(Possibly) change schools, monitor choice of friends, monitor internet use.