32 Signs We Were Budding Lesbians and Bi Girls that Our Parents Missed

Nothing about growing up is simple. There are seemingly endless confusing emotions, obsessions, and realizations that stay with us as we become more and more familiar with who we are and will become. For quite a few of us, these wild n' crazy emotions led to finally realizing, 'Oh hey, I'm pretty sure I'm not a straight person.' For some, this revelation might even have been a total surprise. However, when we look back on our childhoods and explore some of our most defining moments, we're a little more surprised our parents didn't pick up on the trail of rainbow-tinted memories we created as kids. Here are just a few of the fantastic ways we've been keeping things queer since birth (culled from several bona fide lesbian and bi women). Feel free to comment with your own! This list could truly go on forever.

1. Achieving the perfect shoe/dress combo

When my mom laid out a pretty laced dress for me to wear to school in first grade, which I naturally paired with my favorite shoes — my construction boots. 

2. Missing summer camp a little too much

When I never got homesick at Girl Scout Camp and cried for a week, writing deep letters to my friends and counselors, upon my return home. 

3. Totally reasonable Christmas gifts

When I was in middle school, I used to use my entire allowance from the fall to buy my (then current) girl crush/best friend jewelry for Christmas.

4. Focusing on education

When I was upset that my mom did not send me away to all-girls boarding school for high school. 

5. Unusual cake decoration requests

When I was in middle school and held an actual birthday party for Keira Knightley.

6. Dolls need homes too

When I never had any interest in dolls but I was killer at building stuff with my Lincoln Logs and Legos (or maybe I was just an architect in training). 

7. Happy Days Dreams

When I seriously wanted to be Fonzie (not because I wanted to be a boy) but because I wanted all the girls to love me. 

8. Crushing on the babysitter

When I caught up on all the TV shows my cute babysitters watched so we could have “intellectual talking points.”

9. Forever obsessed with Ellen Page

When I saw Hard Candy and was like, 'Dayum, Ellen Page.'

10. Crushed athletic expectations

When realizing I wasn’t very good at softball led me to question my entire existence.

11. Fangirling 

When I bought a flower for the female lead of the high school musical my brother was in.

12. Bonding over bathroom routines

When I used to put shaving cream on my face and stand with my dad as if we were shaving together. 

13. The good ol' Color of Friendship days

When I only wanted to watch Disney Channel movies featuring strong female friendships where they hugged a lot.

14. Horsegirl pride 

When going to horse riding camps that was almost exclusively girls was the ideal way to spend a vacation.

15. Keeping the Faith

When everything Eliza Dushku did in the early 2000s woke you up.

16. Never saying 'yes' to the dress

When I would act like a vampire caught in the sun every time she laid out a dress for Easter Sunday. 

17. No love for Leo

When I had no qualms about Kate Winslet taking up that entire piece of wood at the end of Titanic.

18.All about the Muggles

When, as far as I was concerned, Harry Potter was the story of Hermione Granger being glorious in every way. 

19. Drew Barrymore-related sick days

When I was devastated Drew Barrymore died in the first ten minutes of Scream after I'd taken the day off school to watch it

20.  Jurassic Park got it right

When I thought the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park all being female seemed like an ideal life 

21. A Crush to Remember

When I was in grade school and wrote a fan letter to Mandy Moore, but then get too intimidated by her perfection to ever send it. I still have it. 

22. Basketball diaries 

When I would inevitably come home with my hair a complete mess after playing the most epic pickup basketball games of my life. I paid no attention to the fact that she spent either time straightening and curling it herself, or money sending me to a salon to get it done. 

23. The epitome of style

When I spent an entire year wearing camouflage pants.

24. More like 'Joey's Creek'

When you wished you had a best friend like Joey Potter to climb in your window (and knew you would have treated her better than Dawson).

25. Scully was life

When I said my life was ruined because I wasn't allowed to see Gillian Anderson when she came to town

26. Accidental lesbian sex singalongs

When I memorized all the words to “Under Your Spell” from the Buffy musical, not realizing it pretty code for lesbian sex. 

27. Things got "Complicated" 

When Avril Lavigne came on the scene and led me to believe ties and tank tops were a look that I should definitely leave the house in.

28. Barbie needed no man

When I didn’t understand why Ken Dolls were necessary...

29. Killing it in the hairstyle department

When I begged my hair dresser to give me a spray-dyed blue faux hawk. 

30. The aspiring artist 

I got into huge trouble after my mom found my rudimentary and horrifically explicit drawings of women having sex when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade. OK, I was just guessing what it looked like for women to have sex with each other... But she should have known! 

31. Stay golden, Diane Lane

When I was unreasonably jealous of every man who got to interact with Diane Lane’s character in The Outsiders.

32. Always slaying in the style departent. Always.

When I lived in my Umbro soccer shorts seven days a week. 

(Special thanks to Karen Kerr, Victoria Narayan, Leslie Dobbins, Michelle Garcia and Boo Jarchow!)