Story time!
Looking back now, I spent so much time post-elementary school actively but subconciously living in denial and refusing to examine my sexuality. My childhood I was pretty tomboy, and I was raised as one of the boys; lots of boy cousins, prominent father and uncles and gpa, very few female role models. So once I had a more feminine role model-y presence in my life, I spent a lot of time trying to emulate that because I was suddenly so aware of my being different from other girls. I recall vividly saying to my best friend at the time (age 8?) that I didnt "feel like a girl" based on what the women looked and acted like in my life. But I wanted to be normal, so I spent the next oh, ten years, trying to actively squash any tendency which could be construed as my being anything less than perfectly feminine and straight. I really wanted an eyebrow piercing at one point but thought it might make people think I was a lesbian, so I didnt. I wanted to cut my hair short but was afraid people would think I was a lesbian, so I didnt. I wanted to fit in, but I just didnt have any crushes on boys so I made them up and got really drunk and made out with boys and wouldnt make out with my girl friends (who are very straight but made out with each other to make the guys go ooooooh....) because god forbid someone accuse me of being a lesbian.
So then I found myself a boy who wanted to date me, and had sex with him, and it was just blah, and I thought "itll get better" "youre just inexperienced" "fake it till you make it" "hes objectively very attractive and well-built!" It didnt get much better. Apparently I was terrible at covering up staring at women (mind you, I was still in serious denial and wouldve been ready to fight to the death with anyone who accused me of being queer in any way) because boy kept asking if I liked girls. Eventually I thought about it and said I guess, though I still referred to myself as straight because denial is crazy.
We broke up, I found a rebound boy and my straight facade was just crumbling more and more. Sex was almost always awful and I just wanted it over with, I couldnt stop myself staring and thinking and asking about girls (we had been friends for years and he actually had quite a few lesbian friends I would always ask about) and he just took my liking women for granted despite my still wanting to call myself straight. Eventually, after much prodding from him I admitted I was at least bi and our relationship further crumbled because after admitting I liked women out loud, regardless of label, it became harder and harder to pretend to enjoy being with him. one day the whole wall just fell down and I looked at myself in the mirror and was just like "holy shit Im gay" and Ive spent almost every moment since then on cloud fucking nine because omg the whole world makes sense and I make sense in the world and Im not defective or a failure and the world isnt pointless and bland!
... so thats my denial novel
TLDR; tried to look as straight-feminine as possible, and avoided examining sexuality until forced to by boyfriend(s)