Definition of "otherkin"

It appears that many otherkin are unaware of what makes them different. They just know they are not normal humans.

2000, Cara Des'tai, “The Internet goes mythic”, in Fate

A close friend of mine turned out to be otherkin as well, and I added her to the group so she could discover who she is.

2014, James Vaughan, When Death Calls

You’ve already told Tumblr that you are definitely, really a wolf with wings; you’ve argued in favor of Otherkin rights and awareness; you’ve become a leader of the Otherkin community.

2015 January 12, Jess Zimmerman, “The internet is fertile ground for the mosaic of allegiances out of which teens build identity”, in The Guardian‎

In addition to the otherkin identify as animals, there are some who identify as mythical creatures, like dragons, fairies, or vampires; fictionkin, who identify as fictional characters, frequently from anime series or videogames; weatherkin, like Marco, who identify as weather systems; conceptkin, who identify as abstract concepts; spacekin, who identify as celestial bodies; and several other even more obscure categories (musickin, timeperiodkin—the list goes on).

2016 August 4, Callie Beusman, “'I Look at a Cloud and I See It as Me': The People Who Identify As Objects”, in Broadly

There exists an actual community of people who pretend to be animals and call themselves “otherkins.” As a piece in Vice once put it, “Otherkins are people too; they just identify as nonhuman.”

2017, Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity: Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender‎, New York, N.Y.: Image, Crown Publishing Group

One does not conjure up new categories of being lightly, but Laycock does not hesitate and also introduces the concept of ‘otherkins’, “individuals who identify as ‘not entirely human’.” Otherkins have an unorthodox “framework of metaphysical beliefs,” Laycock says, “If it were orthodox they would not be other-kin.”

2019, David Cohen, “The Vampire Develops, Academic Studies and the Poet Flees the Bailiffs”, in The Psychology of Vampires (The Psychology of Everything), Abingdon, Oxon, New York, N.Y.: Routledge

The page stretched for thousands of entries by users named Starkin and Faefolk411 and NosferatuReborn, their avatars drawn from luridly-rendered fantasy paintings or sketches of people with horns or hooves or wings. “You ever heard of otherkins? They’re people who identify as part animal or spirit. They claim to be dragons, vampires, elves, that sort of thing.”

2019, Justin Joschko, “Someone Who Likes the Ramones”, in Whitetooth Falls, Carbondale, Ill.: JournalStone Publishing, page 57