(general low level panic)

i meant to respond to this literally forever ago and i forgot (because im historically bad at responding to asks im so sorry😭) but im getting a bunch of stuff for the Heartstopper Forever movie and im just so 🥲😭😩🥹 about it

i looked at one of those ‘letters to my future self’ from my freshman year of high school and i’d written that Heartstopper was my favorite tv show. and i had a friend that was looking at it with me and was like “really? Heartstopper?” (not judging, just surprised). and idk it just made me think about 13 year old me who’d just barely figured out i was queer and had a pretty awful coming out experience finding that show and falling completely in love with it. i’d grown up completely cut off from queer media so that was my first experience with characters who were like me in that way. and i remember feeling this awe as i watched it and saw queer characters with queer storylines as well as queer characters with other storylines. my younger brother was in the room while i rewatched some of it and he caught some of Charlie’s struggles with an ED and SH, and he asked to watch it with me because he’d never seen a man with an eating disorder in media. it was the first time he saw that part of himself on a screen. i remember watching it and tearing up every time it showed Tori and Charlie because i saw myself and my brother in them.

and ive seen people say they dont like the acting or that its too cringey or whatever, but none of that changes the impact the show and comics have had on so many young queer kids out there. Heartstopper has such a good balance of characters hurting because they’re queer and characters hurting because they’re people outside of their queerness. there are so many queer characters with storylines that have just been copy-pasted for low effort representation, but Heartstopper doesn’t do that. these are characters who hurt and make mistakes and grow and cry and laugh, and it’s such a beautiful show.

idk man, im just so emotional knowing that i found this show exactly when i needed it, and now that i’m older and doing better, it’s ending. like in so many ways i feel i’ve really grown with these characters and im so excited to see the end of their story, but im also sad to see it end. it’s just so bittersweet.