When Did You Find Out...?

[AcerGirlM]

Okay another poll...When did you find out about asexuality and how did you find out about it?

[Manly Ace]

I was strongly repulsed by both homo and heterosexuality. That's all. :)

So, since forever somehow.

The word itself was not a revelation for me, just a way to give a name to something I've always known.

[Eva]

I found out about asexuality a few weeks ago in a newspaper article that talked about AVEN. I joined immediately!

I understood my own uninterest in sex and romance about age 13, with lots of clues about it from a very early age.

[imafuturecatlady]

I was skyping with one of my friends one day and somehow we got onto the topic of relationships and dating, and I told her that I've never really been that interested in pursuing a sexual partner and I didn't really want to have kids. Her response was that maybe I was asexual. I didn't really think about it for quite a few months until I decided to look it up.

[Valja]

At 19 if I remember right, all my friends had been at least in a relationship and I wasn't interested at all. I searched the internet writing I'm not attracted to neither males or females.

[NiTeLight]

I knew I was - compared to my peers - relatively disinterested in typical relationships all through high school (although I had a vague awareness of that since the beginning of middle school). I learned of the term "asexuality" through Sherlock fan fiction just after I turned 18, looked up AVEN a few months later after having come across it in several other Sherlock fan fics. It took me until I was almost 19 to realize I might be on the spectrum myself (mental facepalm at my obliviousness, since it's really obvious in hindsight), and another couple months before I was able to accept I probably am fully ace, not demi (thank you, social conditioning). It was almost half a year after that before I became comfortable and confident with that label applying to me.

[bittersweet988]

I found out when I was about 24, while being in my first relationship. I had never been interested in sex before, so I started to believe I was different during my teenage years. Yet I eventually found a boyfriend and decided to try sex because I thought maybe I was just shy and afraid of having sex...well, I tried it and that's how I realized I was asexual.

[WünderBâhr]

Moved to the Census forum.

Bipolar Bear

Asexual Q&A Mod

[WhenSummersGone]

Age 24 and I found out about Asexuality from Wikipedia. I then joined this site shortly after.

[pyroshadow]

At about 19 I was involved in a web series about relationships/sexuality etc, I was cast as the asexual younger sister of one of the main characters, I related to the character quite well.

Then when I was about 23 I met some quite sex obsessed people and that's when I finally clicked I wasn't as "normal" as I thought I was...

I "came out" in 2014 as Demi at 25 =) (I was quite slow..)

[butterflydreams]

I heard the word from my dad at 15. Took 10 years for it to percolate in my subconscious, and for certain life events to no longer be ignorable before I identified as such though. I don't know how all you young'uns do it! :) I guess a better internet has helped immensely.

[kelico]

I found out about it just about a year ago! So when I was 25. And I said I "found out about" it by finding AVEN. I honestly don't remember what initially brought me to AVEN...some article I read? But I didn't know a thing about it until I came across AVEN. : )

[Rollacosta]

I love listening to podcast while I work and do other things around the house. One day while looking around the "How Stuff Works" podcast archive, I found one called "How Asexuality Works". This podcast talks a lot about AVEN.

I used to think I was broken.

Now I'm much more comfortable with what I am, though still not comfortable enough to talk about this topic with others. I'm trying though. :aven:

[Bob32]

I found out about asexuality when I was about 16. I found the terminology and AVEN when I did a search on not being attracted to anyone. My grandmother was asking a lot about any relationships and everything. Being an aromatic asexual made for some odd conversations. So I was curious one night and wanted to see if anyone else was like me. Turns out there are.

I have to say that I always kind of knew. I never had any crushes or any plans on getting married. I did have two family members that as fair back as I can remember have not been in any relationships. So growing up I thought that was a perfectly normal thing. It wasn't until my fourth year in primary school when some friends asked about future plans including marriage that I found out that I was not "normal".

[Skycaptain]

I was 42 when the concept of asexuality was put to me by a counsellor, who referred me to the AVEN site

[Copper]

In high school I realized that I don't experience attraction the same way my friends do. So I sought out the internet and eventually found AVEN.

[Rising Sun]

I was 25. I had a Facebook friend who was asexual.

[deltaX]

I found the term almost a year ago now, when I was 19. I heard the term causally mentioned online somewhere, and because I was already starting to feel broken after a failed romantic relationship, I decided to research some more. I'm very glad that I did! :D

[Guest]

Around 18 - 19, from an online acquaintance.

[Lady Valacri]

The term asexual popped into my mind one night so I googled it. That's how I found Aven and in a way 'discovered' myself.

[drjohnhwatson]

I chose 19-24 and that I heard it from "somewhere", but I'm not altogether sure. I think that might be right. As for myself, I'm not sure as to when I figured it out for myself. It's all very grey to me, haha. Probably 19-24 as well though I started to suspect roughly that age as well.

:D.

[Skaiya]

19.

From Tumblr.

[knout]

Age 24 and I found out about Asexuality from Wikipedia. I then joined this site shortly after.

That.

Hmm, now thinking about it, it was a bit before that as I joined AVEN when I was about 23 and had learnt about asexuality about a year prior

[WolfySnarl]

From a friend at the ripe old age of 18. "Thank you so much!" I shout into the night sky.

[Karret]

I heard it from... either a friend or an acquaintence, and I actually responded with the "lol, I can't reproduce with myself idiot" and chose nonsexual for a while before it hit me that the a in asexual was used the same way atypical or atheist is, basically meaning not-sexual, and I was like OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo I get it now. still didn't officially use it until I was idk somewhere around 19 [that's at least when I joined here. XD]

[lilackat]

Laci Green's Asexuality video!!

[Elluna Hellen]

A while ago, but no more than five years, so I put it in the 19-24 category

I heard about it SOMEWHERE on the internet? O_o

Basically dismissed it for a while until last year when I figured out that 23 would probably be WAY late to be a late bloomer :P

[Larkaloke]

Twenty-one or so, and I heard about if first from my brother.

[Grumpy Alien]

19 from someone mentioning demisexuality online. I Googled it and voila - I found AVEN and a ton of new vocabulary.

[AmyLuna]

I discovered i was asexual a couple of months before i turned 18. I had heard the word mentioned about Sheldon while watching The Big Bang Theory and i decided to search the word on google to find the definition as i'd heard of it before but wasnt exactly sure what it meant. I think i found the wikipedia page and then i was led to the AVEN website and realised that it described me perfectly. Before i discovered asexuality i just thought i was a late bloomer/weird and that my non-interest/aversion to sex and relationships would go away after my first time having sex, or that when i got married that i could hope that the honeymoon sex would be over quickly and that my husband wouldnt want sex that often. Now i know that I'm an aromantic asexual i dont have to worry that im not normal and i know that i dont have to get married or have relationships anymore :D