The Reddit thread asked female users: "When did you first notice that men were looking at you in a sexual way? How old were you and how did it make you feel?"
The question attracted more than 21,400 responses within two days. Many women revealed that men, particularly older men, starting leering at them during puberty.
One woman said she was only eight years old when a "creepy 40 something white guy" followed her into a Kmart changeroom when she wandered away from her mother.
She said he "tried to pull and shake the locked stall door open that I was hiding behind."
The woman added, "I sat, curled into a ball on the changing seat, staring at his dirty work boots just on the other side of that door, terrified."
"I will never forget how frightened I was. I had no idea what he wanted with me, but the way he stared and his aggression trying to pull that changing room door open made me feel so sick and ashamed of my body and I wondered what I had done to make him come after me."
Many Reddit users reported that they were 11 or 12 when boys in their class or older men began noticing them in a sexual way. Some women wrote that they were harassed, cat-called, and even groped at an early age.
But it wasn't just women who responded. One male user said he was harassed by a middle aged man, who thought he was a "pretty girl" from behind.
"Out of nowhere a man… grabbed my shoulder and spun me around, looking at me with a creepy smile saying. 'Oh, I thought you where [sic] a pretty girl.'
"I'm a guy, I had long wavy, fairly girly hair at the time and have always been quite skinny, I shouldn't technically be answering in this thread, but I'll never forget that moment because It creeped me out, I've never been more protective of my two sisters since that moment."
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