Eli5: Why do you use “they” for non-gendered speech instead of “it”?

Question

I’m not a native speaker, but as far as I understood, for singular objects and animals “it” was used. Why use “they” for individual people then?

In: 1400

Answer 1

“It” is an object. “They” are a person. That’s really all there is to it.

Bonus fun fact! Singular “they” is older than singular “you” by a couple of centuries. “You” used to be strictly plural – that”s why it always takes the plural form of the verb “to be”, “are”.