Why I Simply Call Myself a Selkie
Disclaimer: This is simply my personal experience and how I understand my own reality. Everyone’s journey is valid and may look completely different. There is no one “correct” way to be alterhuman, therian, or anything else. This is just how it feels true for me.
Have been thinking a lot lately about labels in the alterhuman community, and why I don’t personally use terms like otherkin, therian, theriomythic, or similar for myself.
For me, the answer is simple: I am a selkie. Not as an identity, but as my fundamental being.
To me, an identity is something that can shift, evolve, or be chosen. It often sits in the realm of the spiritual, psychological, or emotional. My experience as a selkie doesn’t feel like any of those. It simply is. It has always been this way, unchanging. Because it is not fluid and does not require claiming or maintaining, I don’t frame it as an identity. I simply am a selkie.
This ties into something broader that fascinates me: the idea that each of us exists within our own subjective reality. Science and philosophy both support the notion that perception shapes experience, our senses, neurology, beliefs, and circumstances create a unique lens through which we understand the world. What is “real” to me may not align with what is real to someone else, and that’s okay.
In my reality, I am a selkie. One day I may find my pelt and return to the ocean as a seal, and I do not see this as delusion; it is simply my personal perception of my existence. And while one may perceive it differently through their own lens, I totally respect that.
Now one may ask why I use “identity” labels/tags when I make my posts?
Using broader tags like #alterhuman, #therian, #otherkin, etc. when I post isn’t because I identify with those labels, but because they help my experiences reach others who might relate. If even one person finds comfort in knowing they’re not alone, then the tags have done their job. They’re tools for connection and visibility, not definitions of who I am.
I’m curious how others experience the difference (or lack of difference) between identity and being? 👀
