Otherkin

It appears that many otherkin are unaware of what makes them different. They just know they are not normal humans.

A close friend of mine turned out to be otherkin as well, and I added her to the group so she could discover who she is.

You’ve already told Tumblr that you are definitely, really a wolf with wings; you’ve argued in favor of Otherkin rights and awareness; you’ve become a leader of the Otherkin community.

In addition to the otherkin identify as animals, there are some who identify as mythical creatures, like dragons, fairies, or vampires; fictionkin, who identify as fictional characters, frequently from anime series or videogames; weatherkin, like Marco, who identify as weather systems; conceptkin, who identify as abstract concepts; spacekin, who identify as celestial bodies; and several other even more obscure categories (musickin, timeperiodkin—the list goes on).

There exists an actual community of people who pretend to be animals and call themselves “otherkins.” As a piece in Vice once put it, “Otherkins are people too; they just identify as nonhuman.”

One does not conjure up new categories of being lightly, but Laycock does not hesitate and also introduces the concept of ‘otherkins’, “individuals who identify as ‘not entirely human’.” Otherkins have an unorthodox “framework of metaphysical beliefs,” Laycock says, “If it were orthodox they would not be other-kin.”

The page stretched for thousands of entries by users named Starkin and Faefolk411 and NosferatuReborn, their avatars drawn from luridly-rendered fantasy paintings or sketches of people with horns or hooves or wings. “You ever heard of otherkins? They’re people who identify as part animal or spirit. They claim to be dragons, vampires, elves, that sort of thing.”