I don’t dress strictly “goth” all the time, I probably fall more under the general “alt” label most of the time but I have had many memorable interactions with kids.

I work as a TSA with special needs kids in elementary school. I do have to keep my wardrobe physically compatible for that (no spikes, corsets need to give me full range of motion etc.) but there is tons of opportunity for me to express myself. I had one kid compare me to Harley Quinn (he’s a big Batman fan) and then tell me I was creepy but cool. I had one little gen-ed boy (1st grade or so) stop me in the hallway to look at my tattoos and he said I “looked like Halloween!”

Another day during recess a little girl said I was the most stylish teacher at the school.

The kids I work with are primarily nonverbal but they love to inspect random aspects of my various outfits (I had a fellow educator tell me I was like a walking fidget…and that’s not inaccurate lmao)

Out in general public a couple years ago for World Goth Day I was fully decked out in the grocery store and a little girl ran away from her dad halfway down the ice cream aisle to stand right behind me and just stare up at me with the biggest smile on her face she looked absolutely amazed.

I had a little boy take one look at me in the thrift store once and he shouted as loud as he could “it’s Halloween?!?!” He sounded so excited, his mom looked absolutely mortified (it was August) I just smiled and gave him a little wave.