Otherkin is a subculture of individuals who identify as partially or entirely nonhuman. Some otherkin believe their identity derives from non-physical spiritual phenomena, such as having a nonhuman soul or reincarnation. Some otherkin give non-spiritual explanations for themselves, such as unusual psychology or neurodivergence, or as part of dissociative identity disorder or being plural. Many otherkin say they are physically human.
The otherkin subculture developed primarily as an online community during the 1990s. It had partly grown out of some small groups of people who described themselves as elves during the 1970s and 1980s. During the late 2000s, the word has come to be treated as an umbrella term for some other nonhuman identity subcultures.
