Teen Identity Whiplash Stuns CDC

A new federal survey cycle shows far fewer ninth-grade girls now call themselves lesbian or bisexual than four years ago, raising hard questions about what the labels are measuring and how adults are reading them.

Story Snapshot

Reported lesbian or bisexual identity among ninth-grade girls fell from 30% in 2021 to 17% in 2025.
Most of the drop came from fewer girls selecting “bisexual,” which reportedly halved to about 13%.
The survey tracks identity labels, not fixed orientation, and asks broader options in 2025.
Low response rates and shifting categories limit firm conclusions about why the change occurred.

What The New Numbers Say And Do Not Say

Jean Twenge’s analysis of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported that ninth-grade girls selecting lesbian or bisexual fell from 30% in 2021 to 17% in 2025, with the larger part from a drop in bisexual identity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey captures how students label themselves, not a clinical test of orientation. The 2025 questionnaire includes options like “some other identity” and “questioning,” which can affect totals depending on how responses are grouped.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey is a repeated, cross-sectional study, which means different students answered in 2021 and 2025. That structure shows population-level change but cannot prove that the same girls switched labels. The 2025 cycle reported an overall response rate near one-third, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weights to reduce bias but cannot fully remove concerns about who chose to answer. These limits advise caution when assigning causes.

Bisexual Label Drives The Decline

Twenge’s reported estimates show bisexual identification among ninth-grade girls dropping by about half, from roughly 26% to 13%. That single shift explains most of the combined lesbian or bisexual decline. Analysts warn that denominator rules matter. Some summaries restrict totals to heterosexual, gay or lesbian, and bisexual to match options over time. Others include “some other identity” and “questioning” responses, which the 2025 instrument explicitly offers. Different choices can change headline percentages.

Several outlets echoed the word “free fall,” while also noting that the cause is unclear and that confidence intervals were not provided in the write-ups they cited. That framing can overstate certainty when the core is descriptive trend data. A stronger test would share uncertainty ranges and replicate the decline under multiple coding choices. Until then, the numbers show a drop in how many ninth-grade girls picked certain labels, not why they picked them or why fewer did so four years later.

Identity Labels, Fluidity, And Adolescent Development

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention distinguishes sexual identity, attraction, and behavior as related but different measures. Longitudinal research following the same youths finds many paths: some teens keep the same label, some move between labels, and others keep questioning. That pattern means a shift in labels does not, by itself, prove that past identities were insincere or that underlying attractions changed. It does show that teen identity development is active and context-driven.

The share of teenage girls who identify as lesbian or bisexual has dropped sharply in just four years in the US, per CDC data highlighted by The Washington Post.

Among ninth-grade girls:

Lesbian or bisexual: 30% in 2021 → 17% in 2025.

Bisexual alone: 26% in 2021 → 13% 2025.

— Straturka (@straturka) October 27, 2026

For families, schools, and policymakers, the practical stakes are real. If fewer girls feel safe or willing to claim a minority label, that is a climate problem. If some teens tried on labels and later did not feel they fit, that is a development story. If shifting survey options or response patterns explain part of the change, that is a measurement issue. The public deserves clarity rather than spin. Better data access, consistent coding across years, and simple uncertainty ranges would help both left and right see what is signal and what is noise.