So… this is a weird one. And I honestly can’t tell if I’m just too sensitive or if my stepdaughter (15F) is being unreasonable. But everyone seems to be siding with her and I'm starting to doubt myself.

I (38F) married my husband (41M) two years ago. He has a daughter from a previous marriage—let’s call her Kayla. Her mom passed away when she was young, and I knew coming in that this wasn’t going to be easy. I tried to be patient, understanding, respectful. I never tried to replace her mom. I never told her what to do. I cooked her favorite meals. I stayed out of her room unless invited. I even asked before putting anything on the living room shelves because, and I quote, “This is still Mom’s house.”

From day one, Kayla has been… distant. Not outright mean at first. Just cold. Like I was an inconvenience. And I could deal with that. She didn’t ask for me to be part of her life.

But then the comments started.

They were subtle at first. Jokes about how “crusty” my outfits were (I like soft earth tones). Asking why my eyes “don’t blink the right way” (I have a neurological thing that makes my blinking inconsistent, it’s harmless). But lately it’s escalated. She calls me names. “Scaly.” “Fish-wife.” “Bottom-feeder.” She laughs when I eat with my hands and makes retching noises at the dinner table.

Last week she told me to “scuttle back to the ocean where I belong.”

I lost it.

Not yelling, but I said, “I don’t know what your problem is with me, but I’ve tried everything to be kind to you. You don’t have to love me, but you will speak to me like a human being.”

She smirked. Dead serious. “You’re not one.”

Now, this is where I might be the AH. I walked out. Left dinner half-cooked and just… sat in my car. My husband came out 20 minutes later, furious—not at Kayla, but at me. Said I embarrassed her. That she’s just going through a phase. That she lost her mom and she’s lashing out. That I need to understand she doesn’t mean it.

But here’s the thing. This isn’t just a teenage phase. She’s been whispering to her friends at school that I’m not real. I’ve overheard her on the phone saying things like “She’s got a chitinous exoskeleton, I swear to God,” and “You can hear her clicking when she walks.” She even told her aunt that I “shed” once a month, which is a grotesque misrepresentation. I molt once a year, max.

So here’s the truth: I am, technically speaking, a humanoid shrimp. Specifically, I’m a Palaemonid hybrid. It's rare but not unheard of—mostly among deep-sea adapted civilizations. My kind were integrated quietly into surface life over the last few decades, and I passed all the legal requirements for naturalized identity. My husband knew before we married. He said it didn’t matter. He said he loved my honesty, my resilience, my “beautiful carapace” (his words). Kayla didn’t know at first, but she found out about a year ago. I never confirmed it, but I think she found my old molting case in the attic.

Since then, it’s been non-stop. She treats me like a sea monster. She makes these… snapping sounds when I walk by. She told my stepson (9M) that I was going to “lay eggs in his brain.” He cried for two hours.

And the family? They’re all taking her side. They say I shouldn’t have “kept it secret.” That I “shouldn’t have married into a human family.” That I’m “not setting Kayla up for a normal life.” Like I chose my biology. Like I asked to be born with external gill appendages.

I just wanted to belong somewhere.

So, Reddit… AITAH for expecting to be treated like a person—even if I’m not technically 100% one?