Hello anon! Now, this is a controversial issue in the otherkin community and I’m not one hundred percent certain I know everything, so if someone comes in and corrects me, I would listen to their correction over my post.

Okay, so glitchkin is, by definition, someone who identifies as a glitch. This generally means that they feel that their existence is literally a glitch in the universe. They aren’t meant to exist, or at least not in the way that they do. From what I know, a lot of (but not all) glitchkin tie their identity to neurodivergence. Essentially, even their way of thinking and/or perceivinn is glitched.For example, they could have incredibly intrusive thoughts, delusions, hallucinations, depersonalizations, bouts of disassociation, and any other of severe symptoms from their neurodivergence. I haven’t heard of any myself, but I suppose it could also be tied to physical disability; one could feel “glitched” due to their physical body being wrong in any number of ways. It could even be tied to a “glitched” gender identity in some way or form. Regardless of why or how they feel glitched, that feeling is so tied up in their sense of self that they identify firmly as a “glitch”.

Now, the reasons why this is controversial is, as far as I know, mainly the issue of how can one identify as an inanimate object? A portion of the community feels confused about this and thus feels that glitchkin is not a viable identity. I cannot speak for glitchkin but… As someone who due to abuse honestly at times thinks strongly of myself as a toy that someone played with, purposefully broke, and then threw away, I can understand how the feeling of being a glitch can get so tied up with someone’s identity. Which arrives at the other main issue regarding glitchkin: the concept of health. A lot of people think that identifying as a glitch is promoting mental illness. Since most of it is tied up to neurodivergence, if one is feeling glitchy, it does tend to be due to one being considered “mentally unwell”. The reasons many identify as glitchkin are often symptoms of serious mental disorders and many feel that accepting those as part of one’s identity means that they will never receive help with those problems. Another issue then arises with well, what if one does get help with those problems? Then they have no reason to identify as a glitch. And that’s an issue because otherkin isn’t supposed to be a transient thing. Either you are or you aren’t. Now, I personally feel that those arguments are flawed and that one can identify validly as a glitch. Part of it is due to my own feelings of feeling like a broken object due to abuse. I can also back it up by an argument if I need to, but that’s not the point of the post. The post is to explain what glitchkin is, and I felt that one needed to know some of the controversy in case they wanted to explore it for themselves.

p.s. nebulaez this might help you as well. I’m not positive but I hope it brings some answers!

-Mod Badger