The otherkin subculture describes the process of beginning to identify oneself as otherkin as Awakening. The process of Awakening has been compared to that of religious revelation or religious conversion. Depending on the individual concerned, it can be either a very sudden or gradual process, and can be a pleasant, self-validating experience, or sometimes a traumatic one.

Many otherkin maintain that their perceived non-human traits are innate, not acquired. In the Awakening process, they generally believe that something is being revealed about themselves that had previously been hidden. Otherkin frequently attest to lifelong feelings of alienation or loneliness, or of homesickness for places they have never seen or cannot identify. They may claim higher levels of psychic, magical or spiritual awareness; on the other hand, some claim none of these things.

In most cases, although there may have been prior vague feelings of detachment from humanity, self-identification specifically as an otherkin is triggered by encounters with or references to otherkin.