I think almost everyone in the LGBTQ+ community can identify with how Nick feels in this scene, having a sexuality crisis and not knowing who you are. The terrible quizzes and generally depressing information Nick finds are very relatable as I felt the exact same way when I was questioning my sexuality and gender identity. The scene where Nick googles ‘am I gay?’ was heart-wrenchingly familiar. Heartstopper has changed everything for LGBTQ+ teens. We lived off creating queer interpretations of the straight storylines we were given – a single longing glance between two characters in a TV show inspired thousands of tumblr gifs, fanfiction & compilation videos.
It’s hard to grasp exactly how much has changed in the media (and we of course still aren’t fully there yet) but I remember gluing my eyes to the very few openly queer characters I saw on TV, and almost all of them were killed off or faced horrendous homophobia and discrimination. Heartstopper is everything I wanted to see as a teenager.
