Thread by @MetroOpinion

'I loved #Heartstopper, but for the LGBTQ+ generation that came before it, there's a sadness we couldn't experience the romance the show highlights.'

@babbedout 🧵trib.al/3h2xV2H

'I was 14 when I first fell in love.

'It was a close friend, who to this day has no idea, but there was nothing more important at the time than keeping my feelings for him a secret.'

'Another 20 years went by before I was actually in my first relationship, and before I first saw anything like the giddy queer romance between two teenagers in Netflix’s Heartstopper.'

'Seeing this earlier could have encouraged me and other queer people to realise we were worthy of love much sooner.'

'Heartstopper shows Nick and Charlie, two school boys who fall in love, overcoming their shame, fear, and bullies, proudly coming to terms with their own sexualities.'

'Already its impact on LGBTQ+ audiences has been extraordinary.

'Just hours after its release, one teenager said they’d used the moment Nick came out as bisexual to his mother (played by Olivia Colman) to come out to their own family.'

'Others said the scene, which sees Nick’s proud mother reach out her hand and tell her shaking son that she loves him, was the inspiration they needed to follow Nick’s lead.'

'And whoever you are, there will be something life-changing to take from Heartstopper.

'I know that I’ll likely be joined by most LGBTQ+ people old enough to remember queuing up to buy Baby One More Time in thinking; ‘If only I’d had Heartstopper when I was 15.’'

'It’s not just the story I wish I’d had growing up, it’s the story of a reality which, like so many others, was never going to be available to me as a queer kid who felt unable to come out.'

Read the full story 👇 trib.al/3h2xV2H