There is a lot of slang within the transgender community, including the usage of the word “egg.” Explore what the word “egg” means and how we got here in this guide.
LGBTQIA+ people have had their own language for centuries, fueled by a need to connect despite censorship and persecution. Queer subcultures have separate dialects, from twinks and bears to chapstick lesbians and U-haul butches – so it’s not a surprise that transgender people have their own language, too.
What Does Egg Mean in the Transgender Community?
Within transgender communities, an egg is an individual who is likely transgender, but is unaware, questioning their gender identity, or otherwise closeted about their identity.
There is a great deal of symbolism wrapped up in this term. Generally speaking, eggs are developing embryos, and although we may expect an egg to hatch into a chicken (or, in this metaphor, a cisgender male) based on outward appearances, there’s no way of fully knowing until that final reveal. The moment of self-discovery is called “cracking”: a raw moment of anxiety accompanied by emerging into a fresh identity in a giant new world.
Traditionally, eggs are individuals who do not know that they are transgender, separating them from well-aware-but-closeted folks. Closeted individuals are frequently grouped with non-closeted eggs because there is genuinely no way to know someone’s internal identity if they’re still in the closet.
Some of them openly question gender expression, while others push themselves to adhere to norms and fragile masculinity. There is no right or wrong way to egg out.
The term “egg” is typically affectionate within transgender circles. Transgender people are endeared to small signs and habits of their identity before self-discovery, resulting in “how did I not know sooner” moments.
It’s also generally endearing when applied to other people, regardless of whether they are actually questioning their gender identity. The world is openly hostile to transgender identities; there is no group of people that transgender people feel safer around than transgender people, including eggs.
There’s a separate conversation about whether it is appropriate to police other people’s gender identities, especially since eggness relates to potentially-trans-but-unsure folks. This conversation is dictated by the communal egg prime directive rule; it’s unkind to police others’ identities, but it’s also important to remember that the term “egg” is generally unserious.
Etymology of the Trans Egg: From 2010 Forums to Academia
Although we have documentation on when and where the word “transgender” originated, the word “egg” is a greater mystery. Based on forum conversations, I would argue the modern usage of the word originates from 2010.
Transgender people have communicated through anonymous forums for decades, following an earlier tradition of underground magazines like Urania, Transvestia, and Drag. Early trans-specific forums include Transgender Forum and Susan’s Place, as well as various Usenet and CompuServe groups.
On Susan’s Place in 2007, user Doc advised another user about potential names, citing Doom Patrol Volume 2 #19 (1989), in which Negative Man and Negative Woman merge to become the intersex individual Rebis after hatching fully formed from their own egg. Although this is not a direct reference, Doc’s comment lays the groundwork about media that formed the transgender egg.
In 2010, FairyGirl wrote to Ashley4214 about self-acceptance, “At this point why does it matter if you’re a pink egg or a blue egg painted pink? The end result is the same – you are pink, NOW.” This comment is likely the earliest use of the word “egg,” encapsulating the metaphor used today.
Later that year, Cindy wrote to Melody after her coming out experience, “There is no way to unbreak the egg. As I tell my TG newbies, the second you tell some one you are TG there is no going back. There is no telling the family, wife, boyfriend whatever that being TG was just a joke.” Cindy captures the second half of the transgender egg metaphor: hatching.
After 2010, the word is difficult to trace as it evolved into modern slang. It’s impossible to know the exact moment “egg” was first used to describe a closeted transgender person.
Bitplane7 uploaded a definition for “egg mode” (likely referencing “girlmode” and “boymode”) in 2016: “Someone who is trans but doesn’t know it yet; someone who is still an embryo of the trans person they will eventually hatch into.”
The subreddit r/egg_irl was created in 2017, steadily increasing in popularity throughout transgender communities. A few months earlier, River Needham published an autobiographical piece about their journey to self-acceptance.
By 2019, Cassie LaBelle published a cultural commentary about egg culture and the subreddit. Gwendolyn Smith’s 2020 commentary posited egg theory as the direct antithesis of rapid-set gender dysphoria and the social contagion hypothesis. The word continued to grow throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and YouTube Reddit reading videos. It even got its own pride flag in 2020, originally uploaded on Tumblr.
Transgender Studies Quarterly published Grace Lavery’s “Egg Theory’s Early Style” in 2020, establishing the word “egg” in transgender academia. The piece explores the history of transgender people pushing against their internal gender identity before self-discovery.
Despite all of this, the word “egg” is still lost on most cisgender people. It’s incredibly well-known within the transgender community, but the allegory has yet to enter the mainstream.
How Reddit, Memes, and the Pandemic Popularized the Transgender Egg
The subreddit r/egg_irl opened the floodgates for the word “egg” within transgender communities. Reddit is the most popular forum platform today, followed by TransGender Pluse and transgender-related Discord servers.
As of July 2026, r/egg_irl has 52,000 visitors and 4,000 posts and comments per week. The subreddit’s memes popularized the term, expanding outward into other subreddits like r/trans, r/asktransgender, and r/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns.
Them theorizes that the COVID-19 pandemic was instrumental to the word’s increased use. “Online activity increased across the board, which means a greater number of people came into contact with niche online terminology and the communities that come up with them,” wrote Evelyn Bauer. “There were many trans people who cracked their eggs and transitioned during the early days of the pandemic, so it also makes sense that the term would grow exponentially from 2020 onward.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it okay to call someone an egg?
No, it is not okay to call someone an egg because speculating on someone else’s gender identity is considered invasive, rude, and disrespectful. Although egg culture is lighthearted, the egg prime directive is an unspoken rule within the transgender community to never force one’s egg to crack prematurely.
Is every questioning person an egg?
No, not every questioning person is an egg. Questioning one’s gender expression, identity, and associated roles is normal and may not lead to identifying as transgender. Someone may explore gender and ultimately conclude that they are cisgender.
What does it mean to “crack” an egg?
“Cracking” one’s egg refers to the moment of self-discovery when an individual concludes that they are transgender. It represents breaking through a shell of denial or unawareness, which is an irreversible process since a broken eggshell cannot be mended together.
What does “egg mode” mean?
“Egg mode” is a slang variant of terms like “boymode” and “girlmode,” describing the period of time when a transgender person was living before discovering their transgender identity.
Why is the word “egg” used as a metaphor for trans people?
The egg metaphor utilizes the concept of a developing embryo inside a shell. From an outside perspective, one might expect an egg to hatch into a standard chick (or cisgender person), but there is no way to know until the egg hatches.