Happy SEVENTH Birthday, Queer Kid Stuff!
Thoughts from Lindz on QKS turning seven…
Wowie today marks Queer Kid Stuff's SEVENTH birthday! I almost can't believe it. I made it because it's what I wished I'd had when I was a confused little queer/trans kid growing up and trying to navigate a cisheterocentric world. I uploaded the very first episode of QKS on May 10, 2016 and it has been an absolute *ride* ever since.
My work making queer stuff for kids started before QKS when I was in undergrad. I was studying theater and fell in love with storytelling for kids. At the same time, I started taking queer theory classes and figuring out (at least parts of) my identit. I wondered how my craft and my identity could speak to each other. I scoured existing theater for kids for any stories of queerness and I came up with extremely few resources. I went off to grad school unsure of how I could turn my interests into a career.
While I was abroad, I was pretty homesick. So, I watched YouTube! I followed LGBTQ+ YouTube legends and thought there might be a place for all ages LGBTQ+ education on YouTube. When I got back stateside, I grabbed a few friends who could work a camera and the rest is history. Since then we've accumulated over 4 million lifetime views on the channel and counting!
But I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The last seven years have been far from easy. I made the hard decision to end the webseries in 2019 because I simply couldn't take it anymore. The online harassment was overwhelming and horrific and I had little to no support or resources to deal with it. I wasn't ready to handle it. I mean, imagine if the first project you put out into the world after graduating blew up and thousands of neo-nazis suddenly descended upon you. It wasn't pretty.
I haven't spoken about this publicly, but last year my therapist diagnosed me with PTSD due to the years of online harassment I've faced. It's still something I'm unraveling. Not to mentioned that I needed to do a whole lot of healing and selfwork. Since the series ended I figured out that I'm neurodivergent! I came out as trans! I got top surgery! And I turned my focus to my family and behind the scenes work…