{"id":26108,"date":"2026-11-11T10:07:32","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T10:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/?p=26108"},"modified":"2026-11-11T10:07:32","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T10:07:32","slug":"mother-seeks-help-after-teen-daughter-identifies-as-fox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/?p=26108","title":{"rendered":"Mother seeks help after teen daughter identifies as fox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A woman recently sought advice on how to handle her 13-year-old stepdaughter\u2018s self-identification as a fox.<\/strong>

The stepmom, Jill, was not sure how to react after discovering that the teen considered herself a \u2018therian\u2019 \u2014 a person who identifies as a non-human animal.

\u201cShe wears a mask and a tail and has a YouTube channel of her jumping around like a fox in really short shorts,\u201d Jill explained on the mental health podcast The Dr. John Delony Show, adding that the girl\u2019s biological mother seemingly encouraged this behavior at her house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. John pointed out that outside his show, he tries to be \u201ccompassionate\u201d and added: \u201cI\u2019ve worked with young people my whole career, like teenagers and young adults, so nothing surprises me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he admitted: \u201cBut the fact that there\u2019s a name for this \u2026 I feel like we\u2019re in the Twilight zone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Credit: Getty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clearly exasperated, Jill continued: \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m calling you. Because I\u2019m at a complete loss and I\u2019m shocked and it is a whole thing and there\u2019s a name and there\u2019s terminology and there\u2019s things that are offensive to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a more bizarre twist, Jill revealed that her stepdaughter had also influenced her nine-year-old biological daughter to identify as a therian, with her stepsister now identifying as a giraffe. Jill mentioned that the stepdaughter had posted a video featuring her two \u201cyoung kids\u201d over Christmas, which the parents hadn\u2019t known about until later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf your kid wants to dress up like a giraffe and run in the backyard, I don\u2019t have an inherent problem with that, understanding that she\u2019s not going to dress like a giraffe when we go out to dinner. She\u2019s not going to dress like a giraffe when friends come over,\u201d he explained about setting boundaries around the child\u2019s preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. John spoke about the dangers of allowing a young girl to livestream, noting that the majority of viewers are likely \u201cadult men.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you hand a kid a smartphone, you\u2019re not giving them access to the world\u2014you\u2019re giving the world access to them,\u201d reinforcing the fact that the young girl\u2019s online behavior could expose her to grooming by sexual predators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Credit: Getty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dr. John highlighted the need for \u201csturdy\u201d parents who stand firm in their rules, saying: \u201cYou\u2019re playing a 10-year game with her. You want her to turn around at 26 and be like, \u2018Those two people never stopped fighting for me, and they really cared for me.’\u201d For the nine-year-old, he suggested allowing her imagination to flourish while ensuring she understood she was not actually a giraffe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jill agreed, saying she was fine with her daughter\u2019s giraffe play as long as it remained a creative outlet and did not involve seeking online validation. Dr. John confirmed that online attention is a \u201ccheap, dime-store version of what affirmation is,\u201d adding: \u201cBut for many millions of kids who are holding a smartphone, it\u2019s all they got.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A woman recently sought advice on how to handle her 13-year-old stepdaughter\u2018s self-identification as a fox.The stepmom, Jill, was not sure how to react after discovering that the teen considered herself a \u2018therian\u2019 \u2014 a person who identifies as a non-human animal.\u201cShe wears a mask and a tail and has a YouTube channel of her …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26110,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26108\/revisions\/26110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}