Is it possible to have an AB/TB/DL character who’s sympathetic?

I’m developing a character for a story, but the subject matter is something that’s never been explored. I’ve seen this done offhandedly as an acceptable target as the butt of a joke, but not where such a character is treated like a person.

The character, Kyle, moves in with his much older brother, his wealthy sister-in-law, and little niece and nephew as he prepares for his junior year of high school. Overall, Kyle is just your average teenager, but he’s haunted by inner demons.

Kyle’s problem is that he hates himself. The reason being that he’s a TBDL (Teen Baby/Diaper Lover), and believes himself to be the worst possible thing you can be because of this. Partially this is because of guilt and shame his father had instilled in him since he first got outed around the age of 13; it’s a facet he can never seem to purge, though he’s trying desperately to do so. What research he had done on the subject didn’t help, between his father’s lectures and reactions he’d seen from others, he doesn’t know if it’s really a front for MA Ps—no criminal admits to being a criminal to the cops, as you know—and for a long time he’d thought he was the only one who did it.

He really wants to get rid of his diaper fetish, believing himself to be depraved at best, broken at worst, because of it. Furthermore, he’s scared of a relapse into wearing one that may jeopardize his nephew’s eventual potty training or even prove his father’s snowball theory despite never having any attraction toward anything other than girls his age. He has a strong moral compass, something that makes him question his persuasions. He’d gone to speak to a therapist prior to the story, it ended with him learning to control his urges, rather than cure it.

Ultimately, he has no idea of what his purpose is in life: he’s in the second half of high school, is searching for his first job (at his brother’s insistence), but doesn’t think he’s of any credit to anyone or anything. As one can imagine, he doesn’t flaunt his diaperism; the general hatred people have for it makes him hide something he already hates, so he won’t risk it. If it became known to everyone, he assumes he’d be on the receiving end of a mob straight out of a FRANKENSTEIN movie. He may be a pretty good drawer, but he always compares himself to others online; he also thinks he can’t tell a good story like his brother.

He can’t accept himself for who he is and he can’t open up about it, because he thinks everyone will hate him because of this.

I think that the question of whether the character will be sympathetic or not will likely come down to how the story treats them.

Noting, of course, that I daresay that pretty much no character is ever universally sympathetic or unsympathetic—sympathy, after all, is an individual reaction.

It’d help if Kyle made sure that no real children get involved in his kink, and maybe he could come to see it more as an appreciation rather than a fetish.

Thank you. Frankly, he’s scared ANYONE would discover this. It’s bad enough that his father dehumanized him over it, he’s afraid others might discover it as well and lynch him or something. In a number of ways, he’s similar to Shinji Ikari, particularly his lack of self-esteem and overly-apologetic at times.

I'm not sure if there'll be any audience for such a plot concept. Most people don't want to read about fetishes they aren't into in general.

I mean, I gather that there are those for whom the above is their fetish (or one thereof); they might be the audience.

And there might be others who are simply curious, or who want to see a new perspective, etc.

So, while I wouldn't imagine that it would have a huge audience, I imagine that there may well be an audience out there.

In theory, any idea can work if you write it well.

You'd have to write this one really well. Really really well.

My advice: Aim for a compassionate portrayal of the main character, obviously, but don't be afraid to incorporate some Cringe Comedy and Toilet Humour into the story. Truthfully, the concept of adult diapers is pretty squicky for most people (because of the association with feces), and diaper fetishism is usually considered with scorn, to an even greater extent than most other fetishes (due to the aforementioned squick). Thus, you should approach the story with a good degree of humor, which is the best way to make such an outré subject matter palatable to general audiences. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't portray the lead's shame and inner torment for pathos — the situation has great dramatic/tragic potential — just that you should also embrace the potential for scatological humor and comedy-of-embarrassment. In short: make it a Dramedy, use appropriate levels of Bathos, and refer to First Law of Tragicomedies.

The point of this is because it’s a subject that HASN’T been tackled before and it’s frankly, not that known. You might not have this, but you might know someone who does. It’s so easy to treat this as an outright joke.

I understand this diaper thing can be goofy, but the people who have it are still people nevertheless. It’s partially because of the scorn and negativity so many people in that community are so scared to talk about it with outsiders. Some might have friends who don’t know about such a side of them out of fear that a discussion might lead to being disowned.

Yes, there’s a number of cringe people in the group, like Richard Kuta for example, but the occasional bad apple isn’t the emblem of the bushel.

Kyle is a well-adjusted person, but he thinks having a diaper fetish negates everything plus about him, because of what his father said about it.