Otherkin — Green seven-pointed star, or septagram, drawn in a single continuous line

Otherkin

1990subculturesemi-active

Published September 20, 2026

Otherkin describes people who believe their true selves are non-human souls, from dragons and elves to angels, faeries, and animals. The term was coined in 1990 on a Usenet-era mailing list for elves and grew from a tiny pagan-adjacent circle into one of the most mocked and defended online identity subcultures of the LiveJournal and Tumblr eras.

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Overview

Otherkin is an umbrella label for people whose sense of self is not fully human. A person's claimed identity, often called a "kintype," can be a mythological creature such as a dragon, elf, faerie, demon, or angel, but the category also covers wild animals, domesticated pets, and stranger picks like starseeds and extraterrestrials2. The belief is framed spiritually rather than as a claim about the physical body, and it overlaps with the older therianthropy scene that focuses specifically on animal identities1.

Most Otherkin communities center on a personal narrative called an Awakening, described as the moment a person recognizes their non-human self and reconnects with traits tied to it2. Community sites like Otherkin.net and the Kinhost FAQ became the standard reading list for newcomers, laying out kintypes, etiquette, and language such as "mundane" for one's everyday human life3. The subculture is small but loud online, and it collects both sincere spiritual writing and heavy mockery from outsiders in roughly equal measure3.

How It Spread

After Usenet, Otherkin moved onto the early web. Otherkin.net launched on June 29, 2000 as a hub for information and community, and a companion LiveJournal community followed on March 4, 20013. The subculture fit LiveJournal's diary format well, and by August 2013 there were around 250 LiveJournal communities linked to Otherkin, plus a dedicated Otherkin News community started in 2009 to track online and offline updates3.

Tumblr picked up the baton in the early 2010s, where the "otherkin" tag drew a mix of sincere posts and hostile ones, turning the term into recurring fodder for cringe compilations3. Reference sites like the Otherkin Wiki and AnOther Wiki tried to organize the growing body of writing, and Otherkin-identified writer Orion Scribner compiled a book list, a directory of related works, and a running timeline of the subculture from the 1970s onward3.

Criticism tracked the growth closely. Threads on Straight Dope, Forumopolis, and Gaia Online treated Otherkin as a punchline, a 2008 Examiner article called the writings self-parodying, Oddee placed Otherkin on a 2009 list of eight bizarre subcultures, and in 2011 humor site Zug ran a stunt piece by a writer who tried to infiltrate the community by claiming an "inner elf"3.

Timeline

1970

A group of self-identifying faeries called The Elf Queen's Daughters forms, an early precursor to the Otherkin idea.

2000-06-29

Otherkin.net launches as an information hub and social space for the subculture.

2001-03-04

A LiveJournal community tied to Otherkin.net is created, seeding the LJ-era boom.

2009

The Otherkin News LiveJournal community is founded to aggregate updates about Otherkin and therianthropes.

2013-08

Around 250 LiveJournal communities are counted as Otherkin-related, while the Tumblr "otherkin" tag draws heavy traffic and pushback.

2018

The Elfinkind Digest sends its final issue after 2,849 digests spanning 28 years.

Frequently Asked Questions