Jaiden Animations (real name Jaiden Dittfach) is an award-winning American animator and YouTuber. She’s famous for creating story-time videos and animations and posting video game content on her channel. Jaiden’s videos often tackle subjects like anxiety, depression, toxic relationships, and body positivity.
In a viral mid-March 2022 video, Jaiden discusses her sexuality, something she’s never done – and probably will never do again – on her YouTube channel. Jaiden’s secrecy had led to rumors about her sexuality, but this confession quashes all of them. The video shows how sexuality rumors can miss the mark entirely and why fans should avoid speculating about such matters.
Jaiden thought she was bisexual or pansexual before realizing she was AroAce
In a video titled Being Not Straight, Jaiden opened up her sexuality journey.
Jaiden stated that she identifies as AroAce, an acronym for Aromantic-Asexual. “I know what you’re thinking,” Jaiden said. “That’s not gay, what the hell is that?”
Aromantic describes a person with no desire for romantic relationships; Asexual describes a person with no desire for sexual intimacy. Jaiden feels no romantic attractions or desire to have sex with people – even those she finds conventionally attractive.
A person can be either of the above or – like Jaiden – be both of them. Jaiden says that she mistook friendships for romantic attractions before realizing she didn’t feel romance. She explained that listening to a romantic song made her discover that she’s aromantic:
“I just suddenly thought to myself, ‘wait do people actually feel these things towards each other. Like all these mushy lyrics are real emotions? They’re not joking?’ That’s when I started feeling like something was different.”
Jaiden said that she’s never been ‘magnetically attracted to the look of a single person.’ “[I] did not realize it was a real thing until very recently,” she said.
Growing up, Jaiden thought she was either bisexual or pansexual. Discovering that she was AroAce was a welcome relief, Jaiden said. She explained:
“It has been a very long journey discovering this about myself. I even used to think I was bi or pan for the longest time. I would think to myself, ‘bi is being interested in both genders, I don’t really care for either but zero is equal to zero, so I guess I’m bi or pan.”
She faked a crush as she grew up to fit in with everyone else
“If I knew what aromantacism was growing up, things would have been a lot less complicated for me,” Jaiden said.
Jaiden revealed that she could never develop crushes like most of her friends: “I remember in fifth grade people started talking about their relationships left and right and it was starting to feel like something I had to experience too.”
To fit in, she faked a crush on a random boy to whom she felt no attraction. “I decided I needed to have a crush because that’s what happens to people and I very robotically chose this random kid in the class whom we can call Pikachu,” she said.
Jaiden told nobody and did nothing about the fake crush. “It was just a headcanon thing for me to feel up to speed and like I was hitting my normal human emotions quota,” she said.
Animations explained that she could feel love, but she’s limited to platonic relationships. “I can still love people, I love my family and my pets… just platonically,” she explained. “I just don’t experience romantic love.”
Jaiden hopes her video helps people become more comfortable with their sexuality
Jaiden said learning she was AroAce made her more confident in herself. She read about people who felt broken after learning they were AroAce, but she felt empowered.
“Coming from my biased perspective I think AroAce is one of the coolest, if not the coolest, and most confident orientations out there,” she said. “Not needing even a gram of intimate validation from anyone is so cool.”
Animations said she hopes her video can help people become more comfortable with their sexualities.