Youth's Lives Every Day
The Trevor Project connected with Alice Oseman (she/they), the author and illustrator for Heartstopper, which was adapted into a Netflix series in 2022. Heartstopper has won multiple Children’s & Family Emmys, including awards for acting and overall excellence, and the series’ third season is out now.
How do you think your series contributes to positive representation of LGBTQ+ youth in the media, and why is this so important for young viewers today?
Heartstopper shows a diverse range of queer experiences and portrays these characters going through very relatable, universal teenage experiences such as falling in love, friendship drama, figuring out your identity, bullying and mental health issues. It shows teenagers that they’re going to be okay, and that they should embrace and celebrate exactly who they are.
What have you heard from LGBTQ+ young people regarding the show?
I’ve heard from many LGBTQ+ young people that Heartstopper has helped them in their own life in some way, whether that’s in their coming out journey, finding self-acceptance, help with reaching out to family and friends, and speaking more openly about difficult subjects such as mental illness.
In season 3 we see the character Isaac continue to explore what it means to be aroace (asexual and aromantic). What inspired you to include this narrative, and why do you think it’s important for audiences to see asexuality represented alongside other queer identities?
It was important to me to include an aroace character in Heartstopper because I am also aroace and I know firsthand the effects of the lack of representation of aroace people in media. There are extremely few examples of aro or ace characters in TV and film, which contributes to the fact that many a-spec people have no idea that they might be aro and/or ace, because they’ve never heard of those identities.
Heartstopper is really a perfect opportunity for me to provide some representation to those people, and I hope that it will help them find some understanding and acceptance of themselves, or at least inspire them to learn more. I also hope that it will teach people about these identities, so that our community can be better understood.
How do you hope Heartstopper encourages allyship within the LGBTQ+ community, and what key lessons do you want viewers to take away?
I hope that by showing a range of experiences under the queer umbrella, it promotes the importance of empathy, friendship, and community. The main lesson to take away from Heartstopper is that no matter what dark time you might be going through, with the right support around you there is always joy and hope to be found.
What else can we expect in Season 3?
There’s so much to explore in season 3! Characters dealing with mental health issues, characters beginning to explore sex, characters going on gender and sexuality journeys, characters tackling bigotry such as transphobia, family drama, therapy chats, cute dogs, and Jonathan Bailey cameo-ing as a famous classics professor.
