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".

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.

Cliiiiiiiiiiiiickbaaaaaaaaiiit.

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)

Hello, I’m a Therian and I’ve been one for six years and I awakened at a young age and I think that awakening young is very ok, and I have gear, and does vocals and do quads and I’ve been doing that for a while now. Therian don’t deserve hate nor do otherkin and otherharden so please no hate on anyone who wants to be themselves like me a trans Therian and furries, we aren’t ZooPhıles or any of that stuff, predators are everywhere so deal with it parents so please just accept and no need to freak out or hat, I was raised by two parents who are sweet, not the internet. :) -⃝⃤

I am a Therian here! I hate the fact that these people are just blaming it on the internet. I would like to let evwryone know, i awakened at 11 and I am now 17! Therianthropy is completely valid, and please do not view it as a mental disorder. It is not a religion, it is harmless, and we know that we are human. At this age, it’s probably a phase, but maybe it is maybe it isnt. Please respect her and support her for her own thing!!

I'm sorry, what is a therian?

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

All this " identity " nonsense only seems to have happened in the past few years. Never heard of it when I was growing up ( in my 70s now ). I think the reply citing social media is spot on. Too much rubbish being put into children's minds, instead of them being out playing with friends or learning interesting things from parents.

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.

Children today have seen, heard & acted on things from the internet, social media. To me I feel these are robbing today's children of their childhood innocence & experiences that I myself grew up with. Yes, times have changed but wake-up, get these kids off social media & back to the basics of childhood, ballet, bike riding, baseball, girl/boy scouts. My great grandchildren are in a Children's Community Theater at ages 8 & 11. So many alternatives to social media, take advantage.

Not sure wtf a therian is, but if the kid needs to be reminded she's human you've crossed into the grotesque.

I had a friend that worked in administration at Father Ryan, a local private school. Their email was first.last at fatherryan dot org. I called her a "fatheryan" (ie,,"fatherian") Not the same, I don't guess.

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

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

No one ever knows if something will be a phase or if it's the beginning of a lifelong affair. Adults don't know, kids don't know, and it doesn't matter. Sharing yourself with a parent will be a short lived phase if you don't take what is shared seriously, and stay respectful. Phases can be just as important as lifelong attachments, if you value your relationship, value what she tells you is important.

Just make sure she doesn't make videos of herself that she posts online. Whatever you upload is free game for anyone to comment on, and some (or, in some cases, a lot) of those comments won't be nice.

I think the people who do this are making an absolute mockery of trans people's very real struggles.

I didn't even know this was an actual thing, like lycanthropy I suppose? But I thought this one author was just using "therian" to make her shifters different from others. It's really interesting, in the series Therians came about after a virus and subsequent vaccine during the Vietnam War. But it features M/M romance so some people won't be into that, sadly. The author is Charlie Cochet and the series is the THIRDS if it suits your fancy.

Imagination is in all kids, dressing up as princess, cowboy, etc...its a game to be played at home. She is a human being not a cat, and that needs to carry to school, etc. do not allow her internal voice to become truth to her. She is not a furry! And if she doesn't want to be teased, then don't wear a cat costume to school! Life is hard, set the boundaries for her and help her deal with it, not by buying into it.