I didn't find out until recently so I can't answer most of the questions. I don't really talk about it because people tend to freak out. I tried to tell my roommate and she didn't talk to me for a week and then sent me an email telling me how wrong I was for being like this and all the problems I was going to incur for her.
None of it really held water, but... still. I'm still a little, I just don't talk to her about it and she ignores everything about it. And I underhandedly point out all the silly little stuff she's doing and she's easing up on me about all my "childish things".
The only other person who knows was a coworker who was on twitter when I was talking about it and read it. She's pretty cool about it and is like "Whatever floats your boat".
As for how I figured it out, I had a Dom who I just had the urge to call "daddy". He said I could call him Daddy he didn't mind. And then I was confused because I knew what it meant for the gay leather community but why the hell was I using it? So I started doing some research and found some sites talking about being a little, not necessarily AB, which I knew I wasn't. I had a friend who was and it just wasn't my thing.
So reading some blogs about other littles and then talking to some littles online helped me figure myself out. That Dom abandoned me without a word. And my second Daddy was a skeeze. So now I'm really kind of jaded and hoping things with my current Daddy work out okay.
It doesn't take anything at all for me to drop into littlespace anymore. Anything pink with unicorns is immediate. Wearing dresses is usually a surefire way. I have HUGE hairbows I wear that make me feel little. Jelly shoes.
Fun little snacks like teddy grahams and juice. I'll just randomly realize I'm being silly and little and sometimes have to make myself back out of it like when I'm at work. I know it's not easy and it was hard for me to get into littlespace for the first time, but once I hit it the first time I'm basically like this all the time anymore. haha