Hi! I'm 18 but I only began to come to terms with the fact that I'm trans this year. Looking back on my childhood, it's quite obvious that I never wholly identified with feminity but it took a while for it to occur to me that I'm not cis. Honestly I could spend ages listing out all the reasons as to why I don't identify with being female and how appealing the idea of transitioning sounds to me, but I'll cut to the chase. Recently, it's become pretty clear to me that I'm either a demiboy or a trans boy or something to that extent (or maybe I'm just plain confused :/). I'm essentially just wondering where do we draw the line between these two genders? How do you know which one you are? I definitely feel more masculine aligned but I don't exactly feel like a /man/, if that makes any sense. This will sound odd, I know, but I do actually feel like a /boy/. Is there any way of finding out which label would fit me better? I haven't discussed my gender very much or seen a therapist though, so who knows - I might not even be either of them.
Honestly, I think the line is drawn wherever you personally decide to place it based on how srongly you prioritize certain feelings of yours. There are plenty of binary trans people out there who started out their journey identifying as nonbinary only for their feelings to grow stronger over time as they indulged in them and realized they were binary transgender. There are also plenty of binary trans people who transitioned physically only to find that the opposite end of the spectrum didn't suit them either, and settled on nonbinary. For me personally, I started out thinking I was androgynous or demigirl, only to find now that I more regularly identify as demiboy or agender. I'd say just let your feelings come and go as you feel them, and if you start to feel that it really strongly affects you one way or the other, then you can identify with one, or both even! Also, there's another identity similar to demiboy but not entirely transmale that I've heard which is "transmasculine", if that interests you as well.
To answer your question, I identify as a binary trans male because I simply don't feel even remotely like a girl. Regardless of whether or not I have a few feminine traits (though I don't have many since I'm masculine) those traits don't make me feel like any more of a girl, or any less of a guy. When I began questioning my gender I initially called myself non binary, though within a matter of days I quickly came to terms that I was fully male. As for figuring yourself out, I agree with KipperTheDeer in that you should just sit back and let your feelings run free. Don't try to force any labels onto yourself and insist that you're something even if it doesn't feel quite right. What you could do is have a go at experimenting with a few labels and pronouns, which you can try here in this forum. There are threads around here that were made specifically for that purpose. If a label you try feels right for you, use it. If it doesn't, have a go at using another one.
For me it's because I know I'm not a boy but if I had to choose girl or boy I'd choose boy in a heartbeat. I'm nearly a boy but not quite. Demigenders call to me in a way transgender doesn't. I knew demiboy was more right than anything else I'd come across before.
I don't really feel like a man either, but I do feel like a boy, like you described. For me, it's because I don't see myself as looking like a man. I look like a 12 year old boy, essentially, and it's hard to see myself as a man or feel like one when I obviously don't look like one to anyone else. For me, I knew I was a trans guy because I want people to see me as a guy. I don't want them to see me as "mostly a guy" or "partly a girl" or anything else. I want them to see me as a guy, albeit a feminine one.
Pretty much this. I won't refer to myself as a man, but as a boy. Blame it on the fact that I never got to experience growing up as one. I don't feel less male because of it, though.
