dewy

A lot of aros describe themselves as romance repulsed, neutral, or favorable but honestly I feel like I can't categorize myself that way because I fit all of those in a way. The closest would probably be romance indifferent/neutral but that doesn't quite fit because I can also be repulsed or favorable sometimes. But honestly I'm not too worried about labeling myself, I just wanted to see if anyone else had that experience. For example, if I hear someone talk about their romantic relationship or attraction I may feel repulsed - I even had a period where I just felt more romance repulsed than normal for no reason. But if I think of the possibility of me being in a romantic relationship, I'll probably be meh on it, maybe a bit curious or even favorable. Then, when it comes to romance in fiction, I'm definitely favorable of it, I've always really enjoyed it. So does anyone else have this sort of experience? If so, what's it like for you?

In my experience, I had heard of aromanticism before but didn't start considering I could be aro until I had an a-spec (aromantic and/or asexual spectrum) friend who would make educational posts on social media about a-spec identifies and experiences. By then I had been in two relationships that didn't work out well for several reasons but looking back I'm not sure I was ever actually romantically attracted to them. I thought about it for a while, tried several different labels, now I just describe myself as aromantic because I'm really not sure I experience romantic attraction at all, and if I do it's very weakly and rarely. I don't really desire a romantic relationship, when I think about it as a possibility I just feel meh about it. I'm still kinda in the process of figuring things out to be honest, but I have come a long way since I've started. Give yourself some time to think about it, for many people it can take a while to figure yourself out, and that's completely ok. I also think the kind of relationship you might be desiring is a queerplatonic relationship, basically a close and intimate relationship but not romantic, so I would suggest looking into that and seeing if that makes sense to you.

Now that I think about it, a "crush" I had in 7th grade may have been at least partially gender envy, as that was when I first started questioning my gender, so it's very possible. Though honestly, I have no idea - I'm pretty bad at figuring out my feelings, and the fact that that was years ago doesn't help.

Absolutely. Arospec people can have a variety of different experiences, and even people who use the exact same label will likely have different experiences.

Title says it all. Personally I unfortunately don't really know about canonically arospec characters, but I love making headcanons. I headcanon Marie and Agent 3 from Splatoon as arospec because of their very aro color pallette, and because it seems to fit them. Another one is Berdly from Deltarune because to me he seems like he's trying to make himself be into romance, if that makes sense? Anyways, what are some of your favorite arospec characters and headcanons? I'd love to hear about them!

Identified as bi for a while. When I started learning about a-spec terms, I identified as gray-aroace and bi, because I felt like I was in between allo and aro/ace. Now I think I'm a lot closer to "just aro" because the "crushes" I've had have been weak and/or short lived and probably confused with just really liking someone platonically, so that's how I label myself. Jury's still out on my sexuality, though.