Book 5 Heartstopper
Cherie Trojak
LinkedIn and 3rd parties use essential and non-essential cookies to provide, secure, analyze and improve our Services, and to show you relevant ads (including professional and job ads) on and off LinkedIn. Learn more in our Cookie Policy.
I can't help it but I am utterly head over heels when it comes to the Netflix Series "#heartstopper ." If you aren't familiar with the story, Alice Oseman has created a series of graphic novels on which the show is based and they are wonderful. Every time I watch the show I immediately text a good friend of mine and gush over how sweet it is, how hopeful and full of joy it makes me and how much I love watching the show. It also sends me on this wild emotional ride after each season conclusion realizing that not only is the show a source of catharsis for me as a Queer ciswoman, but that it also fills me with this sadness I can't quite explain. If I'm being honest with myself I think it's that #Heartstopper portrays a sense of belonging that I've longed for so often in my life- the ways in which the friend group so vulnerably and authentically shows up for one another; the supportive and loving relationships between, specifically, Tao and Nick and their respective mothers. There is a deep and fundamental aspect of seeing people for their true selves and while the love story between Nick and Charlie makes my heart flutter, it is overwhelming the beauty and dynamics of love between all these various relationships in which I find myself so deeply touched by.
"Heartstopper" not only inspires all this and more (even for myself as a full grown adult) but that experiencing a sense of belonging such as they demonstrate in the series, can be the thread that sustains one through hardship, pain, loss, transition, first love, trauma and the evolution of oneself. Ultimately, the way I feel about belonging boils down to this:
I didn't come out officially until my twenties. I didn't fully experience community until I was almost in my thirties and I'm just starting on my journey to belong to myself in my forties. Shows like "Heartstopper" are critical for representation, validation and for reminding folks like myself that healing is a journey, joy is crucial for existence and even just experiencing a sense of belonging empathically can be transformational.