A variant is like when you draw a picture of a dog, but you decide to color its fur blue instead of brown. It’s still a dog, but it looks a little different because of the color change. Variants are like different versions of the same thing, just with small changes that make them unique.
Think of a variant like a family of ducks swimming in a pond. Each duck is part of the same family, but maybe one has a spot on its wing or a different colored beak. They are all still ducks, but these little differences make each one special in its own way.
Imagine you have a box of crayons. Each crayon is a shade of a color, like light blue, dark blue, or sky blue. These are all variants of the color blue. They are all blue, but each one is a bit different, just like how a variant is a different form of something that is mostly the same.