Theybies

“Three-year-old twins Zyler and Kadyn Sharpe scurried around the boys and girls clothing racks of a narrow consignment store filled with toys. Zyler, wearing rainbow leggings, scrutinized a pair of hot-pink-and-purple sneakers. Kadyn, in a T-Rex shirt, fixated on a musical cube that flashed colorful lights. At a glance, the only discernible difference between these fraternal twins is their hair—Zyler’s is brown and Kadyn’s is blond. Is Zyler a boy or a girl? How about Kadyn? That’s a question their parents, Nate and Julia Sharpe, say only the twins can decide. The Cambridge, Mass., couple represent a small group of parents raising ‘theybies’—children being brought up without gender designation from birth. A Facebook community for these parents currently claims about 220 members across the U.S. Parents in the U.S. are increasingly raising children outside traditional gender norms—allowing boys and girls to play with the same toys and wear the same clothes—though experts say this is happening mostly in progressive, well-to-do enclaves. But what makes this ‘gender-open’ style of parenting stand out, and even controversial in some circles, is that the parents do not reveal the sex of their children to anyone. Even the children, who are aware of their own body parts and how they may differ from others, are not taught to associate those body parts with being a boy or girl. If no one knows a child’s sex, these parents theorize, the child can’t be pigeonholed into gender stereotypes.”

​“Boy or girl? Parents raising ‘theybies’ let kids decide,” NBCNews.com, Jul. 19, 2018

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