I am a female in my early 30s, educated and successful. I have a challenging career and a growing circle of friends. My life is better than ever before, and I usually present as confident and happy, if a little eccentric. What no one knows is that after years of chasing a socially acceptable relationship (read: marriage to a man), I have accepted my sexuality for what it is -- I am attracted overwhelmingly to animated characters. I would go so far as to call it an orientation.

Not Japanese anime, which has never interested me. Always Western animation. And never your traditional princes and heroes, either. I seem to have a very specific attraction to cynics with a sensitive side. I've tried to find partners with those traits in the 3D world... but I'm not good at it. I do experience some sexual attraction to real people, and have had relationships that lasted years. But the romantic feelings and sexual attraction are nowhere near as strong. Real people all look kind of the same to me.

It feels like a big relief to accept and behind closed doors, I'm free to do me (in all senses of the phrase). But it has its downsides. It means I can't go out on date nights and can't really talk significant others with my friends. I worry that people would see me differently: feel sorry for me, see me as too selfish or emotionally lazy for a "real" relationship, or too deluded to know the difference. I wish the characters were real, but I'm well aware that they aren't. I do find it hard to get to know people, especially to build a dating/romantic relationship. I like being able to have all the information about a character presented to me. Maybe that does mean I'm emotionally lazy?

Since I won't get to talk about this to anyone I know in real life in the foreseeable future, let's discuss.

TL;DR: I experience deep sexual and romantic attractions to animated characters. Accepting this is fulfilling for me, but I have to keep my love life/sex life a secret from everyone I know.