Celebrating Queer Youth
Adolescence is often a punishing condition no matter one’s gender or sexuality. I only have my own experience as a queer kid doing girlhood to reflect upon but back then, I was so uneasy all the time and felt sure I was the only one struggling in the ways that I was. Thankfully, adulthood has shed light on the fact that we all move through our youth uncomfortably, fearfully, and confused.
When it comes to being a young queer kid, I was pretty lucky. I was accepted at home and was even resourced with a weekly LGBT youth group that gave me community when I’d been feeling like I was the only one. But something about being inside my own skin was still so uncomfortable. There was so much life experience I was yet to have that would help me fully understand my identity and grow to truly see my own self. It’s hard to love yourself when you’re not sure who you are or who you want to be – You just know that you’re different and that the world around you rewards familiarity.
When I sought out to photograph people from different groups of the LGBTQ+ community, I immediately thought of young people. It occurred to me that while there are more queer youth living out loud than there were 15 years ago when I was an adolescent, I am hardly connected to any families with teenage kids, let alone queer kids. I posted on the World Wide Web about my search for folks to participate in my Identity Celebration Portraiture project and after cross posting in my fourth queer centered Facebook group, I got a message from Marie.
Marie is the proud mother of a 14-year-old trans kid called Honey. Being part of the queer community herself, there has never been a question as to whether or not Marie would be a cheerleader for her kid regardless of who they turned out to be. So when she saw that I was looking to photograph queer youth to help them celebrate and see themselves, she was all about it. Both of us were really excited from the jump about working together for the sake of empowering her incredibly lovable kid, hoping we could invoke some self love along the way.
Honey (she/he) is a super cool kid. Funny, artistic, expressive. She just graduated 8th grade, so will be a high school freshman in the fall. Initially shy when we first met, once we got to talking about art, music, gender, and our favorite horror movies, it seemed like he knew he could be himself around me. Sure, I’m now over a decade out of high school, but I have a lot in common with Honey. If I walked in to my first day of freshman year at Honey’s school, I’d probably feel less alone than I did on my first day of high school.
Portraiture is the art of being seen. It’s the art of seeing oneself and an embodied sense of our relationships and circumstances. And when it comes to existing as a queer person in a cis heteronormative culture, it can be normal to want to hide. So I was deeply grateful for Honey’s willingness to show up in front of the camera as who he was in that moment – A queer kid who is figuring out who they are, what feels aligned, and who they want to be. Marie, an experienced consultant and stylist, helped to style Honey for the session and it was clear in the way that Honey engaged with the camera that she felt confident with who she was showing up as in the moment.
Marie may have been the only parent that responded to my call for this project, but I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect family for it.
