Thread by @insiderent

Kids cartoon's lack of gender diversity parallels underrepresentation behind the scenes. But queer women, trans, and nonbinary creatives are pushing for representation in an industry that, at times, isn’t welcoming. 👇

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When Noelle Stevenson, the nonbinary lesbian showrunner of “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power” rebooted the ‘80s classic into one of the queerest shows on TV, Stevenson inadvertently waded into a complex debate about what is “good” and “bad” representation.

The show's nonbinary shapeshifting alien Double Trouble was met with both praise and pushback.

Fans criticized the character's role as a villain and as another representation of a nonbinary character whose gender nonconformity was conflated with literal "alienness."

.@JacobTobia, the nonbinary actor who voices Double Trouble, said that while there needs to be nonbinary representation on screen that reflects the community's vast physical diversity, animation's nonhuman characters also make a statement to the viewers they represent.

According to Insider's database, transgender and nonbinary characters are increasingly being represented in kids' cartoons, but just 5% of the 259 LGBTQ characters Insider identified as human or a human-hybrid, compared to 49% of cisgender characters.

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Double Trouble is just one example of the rapid rise in LGBTQ characters within kids' animation — including a newer and complicated wave of nonbinary, trans, and other gender minority representation.

And it isn’t a coincidence.

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.@TheKristiReed, a voice director for "Summer Camp Island," chalked this up to others being less likely to fight "because they have other stories they want to tell."

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But these creatives haven't always been in positions to fight for their characters.

Before Indiewire dubbed "#DocMcStuffins" creator Chris Nee "the Ryan Murphy of children's television," she was a young lesbian in the '90s, largely isolated in animation.

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Shadi Petosky, the first known transgender showrunner in animation experienced many challenges while trying to produce her show, "#DangerAndEggs,” which features queer themes and elements of LGBTQ culture like chosen families and Pride.

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@TanekaStotts, a genderfluid writer on "#StevenUniverse," told Insider that nonbinary, bisexual showrunner creator Rebecca Sugar similarly "went out of the way to make sure that their show was [staffed] as inclusive as possible."

But as nonbinary creators building gender-upending worlds, “we have an additional challenge, which is navigating that in a world where we as people are being dehumanized,” said Sugar.

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As the animation industry adjusts to a wave of queer and gender minority representation, creatives are increasingly grappling on-screen and off with the complicated frontier of LGBTQ representation.

But for those most marginalized, they no longer have to do it alone.