Yeah, that one seriously vexes me too. CBC had a story online recently about a woman who has a non-binary child, and another she described as gender diverse. The first child is 10 years old, age of the other wasn’t given. Thinking of myself at 10, I was completely unaware of my sexuality, I was just a kid, hormones hadn’t kicked in yet and it wasn’t anything I thought about. Beats me how you could know at 10 that you’re non-binary.
IMO, this is where a lot of confusion about the issue is, and where I - as much as I hate it - agree with some who are strictly gay or lesbian, because being gay or lesbian or Bi/Pan is a matter of sexual attraction, while Trans, Queer, Non-Binary, Gender Fluid and others are based on gender.
But because GLB usually get grouped up with TQIA+, it's all under one blanket group, even if there is differences.
As for a kid of 10 knowing they're non-binary - the question could be asked of you how did you know your gender at 10? Because non-binary is a gender term.
If you ask trans people, or others on the gender side of things, how they "knew" and how young they were, you'd get mostly young ages (sometimes real young, sometimes six or so) and that they just knew. Kind'a like how you 'just know' you're a boy/girl for non-trans/straight people.
Some don't realize it until later, some need time to figure out just what it is they are gender wise, and some still mix gender and sexuality so you can be trans and lesbian at the same time, for example.
For me personally, I can look back at my life as a kid now and realize that I was 'not straight' for a long time, but I didn't give myself a 'name' to it until I was much older.
I also had a female relative who was convinced for a few of her adolescent years that she was a lesbian, which caused much angst and agonizing self assessments. Turned out she wasn’t, but she was an extreme drama queen, lived a life like something out of Wuthering Heights, if there was no turgid emotional crisis in her life she’d fabricate one, and didn’t really settle down into some semblance of stability until she was approaching 40. Can’t imagine how even more messed up she might have become in today’s climate of promoting gender diversity, she’d have had even more occasions for inventing emotional crises.
When it comes to sexuality stuff - like being gay, lesbian, etc - experimentation is gonna happen.
Whenever I hear stories of "Oh I thought I was X but turns out I wasn't" I usually think of the person of either being Bi, or they were just not sure themselves.
When it comes to Gender, that's why the blockers are a big push/request. It allows for kids to pause puberty to find out if they are trans, or maybe just gender-fluid, or non-binary or whatever, for certain. And then they don't need to worry about puberty hitting and their bodies changing due to the hormones. It allows them to have a better chance of looking more like the gender they are, not what they were assigned at birth just because of a body part. It'll make transition easier. And they'll PASS, which is one of the biggest issues older Trans people have in their lives. Older Trans people didn't get blockers, so they have the effects of T or E on their bodies and while for trans men it's easier for them to pass as male, well we all know what it's like for Trans women. But kids with blockers don't get that hormone hit right away, until they know, and THEN they can be put on the proper hormones, which means their bodies will better look like the gender they are.
And in the end, the mental health of those kids is a hell of a lot better. When you look like the gender you are, it's a huge weight off of you, vs. when you don't pass.