π³οΈβπ + jerri
jerri's exploration of her gender began when she was really young, and it started with dorothy's closet.
when jerri and dorothy were younger, jerri was constantly stealing her clothes, but dorothy took that as jerri just being an annoying younger sibling and assuming jerri was just trying to annoy her. jerri knew that for herself, it wasn't just about trying to annoy her, but she didn't always really understand what she was doing.
she was trying to get dorothy to ask her questions that jerri desperately wanted to answer but didn't know how to say outright herself. she wanted dorothy to ask why. she wanted her to comment on what might work for jerri or understand that jerri was searching for other answers and try to help her with them. jerri didn't really have any friends; she had her mother and her sister and her sister felt more accessible to these confessions than her mother, so she wanted to believe dorothy would just get her.
jerri didn't really understand it at the time, but she was trying to test the waters to see if dorothy would be supportive when jerri admitted to her that she felt like she was a girl. but dorothy never really gave her the opportunity she was looking for and when jerri finally did tell her outright that she wanted her clothes because she was also a girl and wanted to be dorothy's sister, dorothy mostly wrote her off (dorothy eventually does try to be supportive of jerri, at least to her face, but jerri still hears what she & their mother are saying when they assume jerri isn't listening).
all that being said, jerri's style is nothing like dorothy's. it was just the most accessible way for jerri to start exploring her gender and figuring out what her own style is beyond the gendered clothing her mother had given her, because it was frustrating to jerri that she couldn't just give jerri dorothy's hand-me-downs. dorothy is a lot more stereotypically feminine than jerri is, which is something jerri understands little more as she gets to middle school, + the more she explores her gender, the more she understands what she likes and what her style is and that stealing dorothy's clothes was alway more about having access to women's clothing rather than it was about wanting those pieces specifically.
she has a hard time post founder's day deciding whether or not to wear any of dorothy's clothing, because she knows dorothy never really liked jerri wearing it even after dorothy did "accept" jerri's transition, because she knows dorothy didn't ever really fully accept her, but she does still mourn her sister and has a complicated time grieving someone who she loved who didn't exactly love jerri for her in the end. regardless of anything, she does miss dorothy, dorothy was there for her in the end, and jerri wants to feel close to her in some way β so she mostly only wears a few select accessories of dorothy's (a bracelet dorothy had gotten with her when they were younger, a beanie, headbangs, etc.) but she generally stays away from the wardrobe.
