Key Points
- The number of young people identifying as transgender has soared in recent years, and females have come to make up the vast majority of patients seeking gender transitions, reversing a longstanding trend.
- Some view this rapid demographic shift as evidence that peer influence is driving young people, females in particular, to transition.
- The youth-dominated platform TikTok is flooded with content promoting medical interventions, including surgeries, as the solution to common adolescent woes such as discomfort with one’s body
- “Rising rates of transgender identification are driven by a combination of factors: the pandemic, social isolation and a huge upswing in consumption of social media. Deplorably, there are medical providers on TikTok telling kids that if they’re unhappy with their body, maybe they’re in the wrong body and should consider transition,” Anderson told the DCNF. “It’s horrible that kids are getting this kind of advice from unvetted strangers on the internet, most of whom have no medical qualifications.”
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