Heartstopper: Why Queer Representation Matters

Sometimes a TV series has the potential to enhance, maybe even change your life. Heartstopper is one of those series. But how and why has the Netflix hit made such an impact? We chatted to our community to find out more...

This article was written by young people, as part of the The Mix community.

Jack’s Story

Hi, I’m Jack (he/him). I’m 19, and I am a student from Cardiff. I love Lord of the rings, musicals (les mis especially), Doctor Who and BBC Merlin. I have a rare form of EDS (clEDS), and autism, which have made me extremely passionate about accessibility, diversity and equality.

Heartstopper has directly impacted my mental health. I’m disabled – most notably, I have a rare and more severe form of EDS, Autism, and several mental health conditions. I’ve previously blamed myself, thinking it was all my fault.

Charlie’s journey with mental health was gentle compared to the reality of trying to get help from doctors and therapists. Despite this, it was accurate. Watching Charlie with his OCD diagnosis, and coming to the conclusion his intrusive thoughts around control was a part of his condition made me realise my own intrusive thoughts were not normal. Since watching series three, I’ve now started receiving support for what we suspect is OCD. Something I never thought I had, as I didn’t fit the stereotypes. Without Heartstopper, I wouldn’t be getting that help.

On top of that, as a trans teenager, seeing myself on screen just for a bit made me feel validated, even if there was only a few moments with a trans guy on screen. When it had ended, I was joyful that things are improving in entertainment for people like me, but also sad. I was sad it was over, and I was sad at the representation I could have had when I needed it 7 years ago.

I appreciated the representation of disability the most. It’s more accepted to have a “token queer” character in media, but it’s rare to see anyone who is disabled. To have multiple characters with disabilities was amazing. The entertainment industry has a huge problem with accessibility and casting of disabled actors – I should know, I’ve had a couple of auditions and roles, and I’m studying this exact topic at college – so by having authentic representation of disabilities by disabled actors is a great step.

Seeing this can help disabled people see themselves in media, and help with internalised ableism. I constantly think that my story isn’t worth telling, that I don’t deserve to be seen outside of as a pity case, because I have Classical-Like EDS, and struggle with my mobility. It’s reminders from programmes like Heartstopper that have kept me going. It’s inspiring me to go into the screen and stage industries and try to change things to level out the obvious inequalities.

Heartstopper is the pinnacle of representation in media for younger people like me today. It’s got queer people, people of colour, disabled people. I can’t imagine how beneficial that would have been to me at the age I was struggling with my own identities.

When I was younger, my grandparents were homophobic. I would test the waters with them, asking what they thought of queer people, and the responses were very negative. After I came out to my mother, and she told them, they all sat down and spoke about how it doesn’t change anything about me. I’m still the same person, even if I love the same gender, or my body and identity don’t align. My mum showed them different programmes and films with representation of queer people. It wasn’t long before they wholeheartedly accepted my identity in its entirety. In fact, my grandma went to pride last year, and filmed it for my grandad to watch too!

My hopes for future LGBTQIA+ representation in media probably seems a bit anticlimactic. I don’t want it to be ground-breaking and a spearhead for diversity that authentic queer representation is included on our screens or on our stages. It isn’t a big deal to be gay, or trans, and it shouldn’t be seen as the pinnacle of inclusion to let us exist.

Heartstopper does this well, the group’s sexuality and gender identities aren’t controversial, and are presented as just an aspect of who they are, while also accurately reflecting the issues we face with bullying or bigotry. The next steps are more queer series that are allowed to air without cancellation, and a story which isn’t about a queer group of people, or about a queer romance. Just a story that happens to have queer characters.

One day, I want queerness on our screens to have no impact. I want it to be okay to be queer in media. I want it so it isn’t the lifeline for kids, as it was for me – they shouldn’t be made to rely on representation to cope with society’s hatred.

Troy’s Story

Hey, I’m Troy (he/him). I am 22 years old, and I am an activist advocating for issues I am passionate about like SEND and Youth Voice. 

Heartstopper has changed my life as a gay, Black, young person. It taught me to never let anyone define who I am and made me feel seen and understood. The scene where Charlie told Nick how he felt made me feel like I can tell someone I like how I feel and be honest, rather than keeping it in. I liked how they portrayed identity. You are who you are and people should never define you.

It is important to us as young people. We could feel judged and feel that we don’t matter because of who we are.  Positive representation in wellbeing can help us show everyone how it is and how you feel in certain situations, and also understanding that you and everyone around you have needs.

I want to see more success stories of young people being who they are – happy and in proud relationships, and living life being who they want to be and not judged because of who they are.

Ash’s Story

Hi! I’m Ash (she/her). I am 20 years old and I’m very passionate about many causes including the gender pay gap and disabled rights. 

I will always remember when I first heard about the show. I had previously never read the comics or had ever heard of Heartstopper before.  At the time, although I thought that I was straight, I had previous had romantic feelings towards my female best friend (with me being female too), but I didn’t even consider this might mean that I wasn’t straight.

I was however a massive ally to the LGBTQ+ community and I fully supported everyone in the community. I decided to watch the first episode, to see why the show was so popular. I only managed to watch the first episode, which I was enjoying and connecting with, so I spent the whole night watching the rest of the series. After I finished, it made me think about a lot of things. It made me think about my past feelings about my female friend and how I always felt that other girls are so beautiful (I had always assumed this was jealousy) but all of a sudden these past feelings made sense: I started considering the idea that I was attracted to men and potentially women too.

After I saw Nick Nelson work out that he’s bisexual , I then started using the label bisexual to describe my attraction. After a while, I began experimenting with other labels and now I have worked out I’m a lesbian. Although I’m not bi, that scene with Nick Nelson and working out his sexuality led me to start exploring my own sexuality which is a massive part of my life and that I’m eternally thankful for.

As a wheelchair user myself growing up, I never saw another wheelchair user on tv, let alone one that is part of the community too. So seeing Felix in season 2 and 3 means so much to me, it was my first time ever seeing both disability and queerness being represented.

I also loved the mental health coverage and the scenes where the characters are working out their sexuality, they are both things I have been or am currently going through. I found them very emotional to watch, but in a good way as I found it totally relatable and I felt they got the representation perfectly right.

Brianna’s Story

Heartstopper to me means that for me as a queer person it’s realistic for me to watch a show that centres queer voices and not just be okay with shows who have one queer character who rarely gets any screen time or a backstory. The characters in this show are young and in high school and it feels really validating for everyone’s queerness to be acknowledged, accepted, understood, and treated as normal.

I LOVED seeing a black lesbian on this show (Tara Jones). It was like my dose of seratonin for the day. Also a black trans woman (Elle Argent)  on this show was just the chef’s kiss. Both characters had supportive and understanding parents which is so important to see because  queer black people can often struggle with homophobia in their own communities. With shows like Heartstopper, we know that it’s possible to find love and acceptance from family and others who look like us.

Young people need to see themselves in the media like Heartstopper because we’re being shown examples of what it means to be taken seriously, what it means to be considered, loved, cherished and supported. We can see what it looks like to reach out for help with mental health, we can see what it’s like to have a future in which you are old or older and gay (the queer teachers in this show warm my heart) we can see that we are not a burden, we shouldn’t stay hidden, and that we can exist as openly and loudly as we need and want to.

My future hopes for LGBTQIA+ representation in the media is that we start including BIPOC lgbtq+ and centre their stories. We have a lot of media representing white cis queerness. I also want for shows and movies that centre queer people to be considered “normal” as well. If a movie features all straight white people we wouldn’t say “oh it’s that movie with straight white people” we’d just say it’s a movie. I want that for queerness as well. Oh the main character is Muslim trans man from south east asia? Then it’s just a movie. The main character and their entourage are queer BIPOC with disabilities? This is normal, of course they’d take up this much space on screen, why wouldn’t they? I hope that representation like this can help people to stop seeing the LGBTQIA+ community as “other’ but rather as humans who have feelings and importance.