A dramatic shift in federal survey data is raising new questions about the influences shaping young Americans.
The share of ninth-grade girls identifying as lesbian or bisexual fell from 30% in 2021 to 17% in 2025, according to an analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
The decline was especially steep among girls identifying as bisexual. That figure dropped from 26% to 13% over the same four-year period.
The analysis was published by Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, who highlighted the reversal after a sharp rise in identification among teenage girls.
The CDC survey is conducted every two years and asks high school students questions about their health, behavior and identity.
Among ninth-grade boys, the change was much smaller. The share identifying as gay or bisexual fell from 9% to 7%, according to the analysis.
The numbers also declined among older girls, though less dramatically. Among female high school students overall, lesbian, gay or bisexual identification dropped from 27% in 2023 to 22% in 2025.
The size of the change has drawn attention from parents who have spent years watching social media, peer groups and school culture play an increasingly prominent role in their children’s lives.
For conservatives, the figures add urgency to a familiar concern: young teenagers are still developing, and adults should be careful about encouraging children to adopt labels before they have had time to grow and mature.
The survey itself does not establish why the numbers changed. It measures how students described themselves when they responded, not what caused them to answer that way.
Twenge also cautioned against assuming politics alone explains the decline. She noted that the decrease began during the Biden administration and questioned why political changes would affect ninth graders so much more sharply than older teenagers.
The 2025 survey had an overall response rate of 30.6%. The CDC weights the results to account for nonresponse, though the figures should still be considered alongside future research.
Rates among older teenage girls also remain higher than they were before the pandemic, meaning the latest decline is not a complete reversal of the earlier trend.
Parents have every reason to ask what children are seeing online, what is being taught in schools and how adults are discussing identity with young students.
