![]() ![]() Unlike Fortnite, Roblox is not a single game, but a platform for game creation and sharing. ![]() Roblox has had less media attention than games such as Fortnite or Minecraft, perhaps because of its younger demographic, but it has an edge over competitors because of the range of players it caters to. Photograph: Abbie Trayler-Smith/The Guardian ![]() View image in fullscreen ‘I’m glad it allowed Hannah to talk to people who knew more than me about what she’s going through,’ says Hannah’s mother, Terri, right. The platform has evolved into one of the world’s biggest junior social networks. It is the highest-grossing game on the US iOS store, according to mobile game market research company GameRefinery, which also noted a huge jump in popularity over the pandemic when children have been stuck at home. ![]() Its recent high-profile debut on the American stock market resulted in a 60% increase in share prices, valuing the company at $47bn (£34bn). The company claims that three-quarters of all American children aged nine to 12 are on Roblox. Since its 2006 launch, it has grown to host 37 million daily active users, with two-thirds of players under the age of 17 in 2020. Hannah’s gaming platform of choice, Roblox, has become a cultural phenomenon. Looking back, I’m glad it allowed Hannah to talk to people who knew more than me about what she’s going through.” “It probably developed some skills, like helping them problem-solve. “I don’t feel games were detrimental to any of my three children,” she says. While Hannah spent a lot of time gaming, her mother, Terri, 47, an NHS recovery support worker, never saw this as a problem. All you need to know is that they play games, they’re nice and they’re accepting of you.” “You have no idea about someone’s background, what school they go to, what their face looks like. “Online, you can get rid of all the baggage of real life,” she says. They offered advice and, more importantly, acceptance. At 15, with a single click, her avatar made a transition to female that was a distant, complicated dream for its creatorĪs Hannah began to favour her female avatar, she confided in Roblox friends about her confusion over her gender identity. I spoke to almost 30 trans gamers, aged 13 to 30, for this article and, while every story was different, each emphasised the important role that games played in helping them to come to terms with their real-world selves. Through her teenage years, the online community around Roblox would help her learn about transitioning, support her as she came out to her family and even help fund her gender-affirming surgery. As soon as I got on the computer, I just knew myself as Hannah.”īefore she had ever heard the word “trans” or understood the concept of gender, Hannah was using the anonymity of the internet to create a version of herself that felt more authentic than her real-world body. You can escape real life and have a completely new identity. Go in as female and no one knows you’re biologically male. “It’s such a 10-year-old name,” she says, laughing, but it was an important turning point. There, she played as a girl, under the name PrincessBananna. But she created a second, secret account her friends didn’t know about. Hannah’s first avatar, which she made to play with her school friends, looked like a boy. When players first start, they are instructed to make an avatar through which they interact with the game world. She had been a gamer since she was three, and began playing on the Roblox platform at eight. While Hannah hid this from family and friends, there was one place where she could live openly as a female. View image in fullscreen One of Hannah’s Roblox avatars: ‘You can escape real life and have a completely new identity.’ Photograph: courtesy of Hannah As if on cue, her mother returned from work unexpectedly and caught Hannah in the act. She took out a silky nightgown and shrugged it on, feeling the instant, giddy rush of something she would later learn to call “gender euphoria”, though it was tempered by fear that someone would walk in. Hannah crept into their bedroom and tentatively opened a drawer. Her mother was at work, her father asleep downstairs in his chair. She vividly remembers the first time she explored that wardrobe, at the age of nine. It wasn’t until a decade later that Hannah would come out as transgender, identify as female, and adopt her current name. Hannah had been assigned male at birth and raised as a boy she feared her mother would not approve of her son trying on dresses. The second was her mother’s wardrobe in their Devon home, full of clothes she longed to try on, even though this was forbidden. The first was her Nintendo 64, which could transport her to the dark dungeons of Zelda and the chaotic battlefields of Super Smash Bros. When she was a child, Hannah discovered two portals to other worlds. ![]()
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