I can’t actually imagine ever feeling like a man.

This was me for a long time. I was a man because thats what people told me i was. I didnt feel like a man, i kept chasing social markers in the hopes that “oh if i have this social marker (e.g. a beard) then ill feel like a man”. But thats not how it works. As far as i can tell, men feel like men because they are men. I wasnt a man so i didnt feel like a man. I felt like a weird not-man-but-cant-say-woman-for-some-reason thing. My gender has expanded beyond strict binary-ness, but i do enjoy womanhood and spend a lot of time being a woman.

I cant tell you youre a woman, or even that youre not a man, thats for you to decide for yourself. But i can say that the men ive talked to about this never questioned their gender, they never had sleepless nights thinking about being a girl or a woman, they didnt fantasize about being an old lady. They wanted to be men. They didnt question it because it fit for them and they enjoyed their man-ness.

As far as whether you can be a girl or not, you absolutely can. Its not something crossed off and forbidden to you, its something you can be. Society sucks and all that, but despite its protestations you can absolutely be a woman. You can be many things. You can be agender, you can be nonbinary in some flavor, you can be bigender, but above all, you can be yourself. Youre allowed to be yourself. If theres something that brings you joy and doesnt harm others then you should pursue it. If being not-a-man brings you joy, or if it alleviates pain, then you should pursue it.