heartstopper is my favorite bl that I’ve ever watched.it covers not only gay stories but also lesbians asexuals and trans folks.I benefited a lot from this show.the bonds of friendship and love among them touch me heart.it feels just like a utopia 🥹

Anyone going to the book signing event at the HMV in birmingham :)

Tickets are available for £10 per entry, and a winner will be selected at random on Monday 9th November. Entries are accepted internationally, and you are able to purchase as many tickets as you wish.

Tickets available here: https://uk.givergy.com/DoodleDay26/?controller=gliRaffles&action=showRaffle&id=1

Midway through Series 2, there's a flashback to when Charlie and Tao first met and became friends, which I think is supposed to be the first day of Year 7 (they look like they're just starting secondary school anyway).

The first day of Year 7 is when you're eleven. Tao's birthday is in September so he was almost twelve, and that was the age he was when his dad died. We don't know exactly when his dad died, but it would have been sometime over the next year.

I wonder how this impacted their friendship early on. Did Charlie ever meet Tao's dad, I wonder? And maybe the reason they've stayed close friends for such a long time and Tao is so unapologetically loyal to Charlie is that Charlie was there for him during his bereavement. You never forget who made an effort to be kind to you at a time like that.

I've got really conflicting views on this, and I can never decide which side to come down on.

On one hand, I think she's a really good depiction of the trap of 'compulsory heterosexuality', which an awful lot of people fall into if they aren't at that extreme a position on the Kinsey scale. For most gay people, it's presumed that at a fairly young age they'll fancy someone of the same sex and then they'll notice it about themselves. Which isn't necessarily always how it works, because not everyone is all that attraction-driven, not everyone falls in love that strongly, and anyway none of us have ever been in someone else's brain besides our own so we can't directly compare the way that we feel attraction to how anyone else does. I feel this is shown quite strongly with Imogen - in the early series, what she finds appealing is the idea of having a boyfriend, far more than she finds any actual boy appealing. And because she can't directly compare like-for-like with someone else's experience, she understandably presumes that what she's experiencing in wanting a boyfriend is what every straight girl feels. And she may well have felt like that for the rest of her life without knowing any different. There are many people who settle into conventional heterosexual marriages and have children, and have a kind of superficial happiness with that life because they just don't realise there's another option that would make them happier. Imogen was just fortunate in that she happened to slip into a mostly LGBTQ+ friendship group, and as she spent more time with characters like Tara and Darcy she got to see that what they had was what she wanted. I think her journey there is depicted very beautifully.

But on the other hand, I'm thinking about Series 1, and what Imogen represented to me. She has a bit of a shit time of it in that series - first her dog dies, and then the boy she likes turns her down. And I just adore the scene with her and Nick in the park when he tells her he doesn't like her like that, largely because of Imogen's reaction to it. She goes there hoping he's going to be her boyfriend, and when she finds out he isn't she handles the disappointment so incredibly maturely and respectfully. I really liked that, because she subverted quite a sexist trope - before that point, Imogen mostly seemed like she was going to represent the clichéd 'other woman' in every romcom, and be clingy and whiny and obviously not someone the audience was meant to root for at all (and probably turn out to be homophobic as well). But in her dignified reaction, and her ability to continue to be friends with Nick afterwards, she threw the audience a curveball - she's actually a lovely girl who might have been good for Nick if he hadn't met Charlie. I thought this was an incredible breath of fresh air, and not something you see enough in this kind of programme. Revealing that she's a lesbian means the context to this is that she wasn't all that into Nick in the first place, which I think takes something away from the strength of this scene. I liked that she genuinely really wanted Nick, but her feelings for him were such that she wasn't selfish about it, she respected him as a person and was able to accept it when he told her he didn't reciprocate. It showed that when you've been rejected, it's possible to compartmentalise your romantic feelings for someone and decide to be platonic friends with them (it's too easy to just feel awkward afterwards and never talk to each other again, which doesn't really benefit anyone). Plus I just think the show needs more cishet allies - they're really important because otherwise it gives the impression that you can only respect and love LGBTQ+ people if you're LGBTQ+ yourself, and that's not how it is. Obviously there's Tao, but I don't like a single token straight any more than I like a single token gay!

Imogen's my favourite character, and I am completely torn between these two instincts. Can never decide which I like more. What does everyone else think?

I've noticed this seems to be the only part of the Oseman-verse not to be available on audiobook. I'm more of an audiobook person, so I've been thinking about it.

Obviously because it's a comic you couldn't do it as a straight reading like the novels - it would have to be more like a radio play, with sound effects replacing the pictures. But you could make the dialogue identical so you can read along with it, and to keep it in the audiobook world you could cast the same actors (Huw Parmenter as Charlie, Sam Newton as Nick, Holly Gibbs as Tori).

Would this work, or are there bits in the comic that just wouldn't translate to the audio format?

Random photo I took to hide mild spoilers of book 6 ending. At the end of book 6 we get two playlists made by Nick and Charlie for each other. Do we think it’s songs one partner likes and wants the other to use to think of them, or do we think it’s songs they know the other person likes to make them know they care? I am trying to make a playlist of songs each of the two like

This is possibly my favourite scene in the whole programme.

Darcy's preparing their bedroom as they move in with their grandma Ivy. Ivy remarks that a teenage girl's bedroom ought to have a picture of a handsome young man on the wall. Darcy says, 'Gran, I'm a lesbian.' Ivy's like, 'Oh right, a picture of a pretty girl then.'

I absolutely adore how Ivy doesn't even seem to think this is a particularly significant thing to be told, and it says something about how I feel about the concept of having to 'come out' if you're an LGBTQ+ teenager. I remember seeing something shared on social media a while back where there was a mother saying that if her young son turned out to be gay when he was older, she hoped he'd never tell her that, but instead just bring a boy home one day. Then she'd make them both a sandwich and ask how they met, just as if he'd brought a girl home. And it really made me think... cishet kids don't have to tell anyone they're cishet as it's just assumed, why do LGBTQ+ kids people have this responsibility to identify themselves?

Darcy had never told Ivy about being a lesbian before not because they were scared Ivy might not be supportive (Ivy's such a treasure she was obviously going to be supportive, and would have kept it from Darcy's mum if Darcy asked her to), but because there'd just never been a natural moment where it had happened to come up. In this scene, that moment finally occurred, Darcy mentioned it, and it didn't take away from the crux of what Ivy was saying to them, which is that it might be nice if there was a picture of someone Darcy liked the look of. I honestly think this is an even better reaction than giving a child a hug and telling them that you love them. Doing that is great, of course, but it still treats it like a big deal. In this scene, there was no deal made of it in any way. Just life will go on as before, just as if Darcy had mentioned anything else about themselves. It's how I hope the world will become in the future, as we collectively become more accustomed to different kinds of identity.

This is something that's just occurred to me. Singh is a Sikh surname, and it's not normally a woman's name. It's usually men who have the surname Singh and women have the surname Kaur.

There are of course exceptions - I don't know that much about Sikh culture, but I think there are some Sikh communities where the surnames can be cross-gender for whatever reason. However, given how much Heartstopper is about representation of underrepresented LGBTQ+ groups, I wondered if with Coach Singh Alice was trying to quietly suggest that the character has decided to go by Singh rather than Kaur because they're exploring being gender-fluid?

If that's what Alice was going for, I really like this creative choice. I like quiet representation, when it's just like 'If you notice you notice' without needing to be dwelled on too much. I especially think it's important to have a non-binary adult, it demonstrates that it's not just a teenage thing.

EDIT: Just remembered another thing... the way they're generally referred to as 'Coach Singh' rather than 'Ms Singh'. That's normal in America, but isn't usually the done thing in UK schools. Maybe it's because Coach Singh feels uncomfortable with gender-based titles and prefers something neutral.

I'm surprised there are no post about Bash/ Sebastian on Celebrity Traitors UK and his (b)romance with Bella.

I drew all the main Heartstopper characters (books + screen) dressed for Halloween as the characters from Stranger Things.

(From left to right)

Top: Darcy as Robin, Tara as Steve

Second row: Imogen as Nancy, Sahar as Jonathan

Front: Nick as Mike, Charlie as Will, Aled as Lucas, Elle as Max, Isaac as Dustin, and Tao as Eleven taking photos

Poses are composited from Gonzais pose references. I used the sixth Heartstopper graphic novel to reference the faces, adding Isaac and Imogen from the show/movie (and changing Elle a bit to meld book + screen version because I like the actress)

:D

I watched Heartstopper in Netflix in September

Absolutely fell for it and thought "man that would be fun to have the books" (hardcover cause i love that)

But when i got my hands on all of them i realized on volume 2 Nicks head points at the wrong side. I absolutely love the idea of them slowly noticing each other and so it bothered me. I ordered volume 2 again...with the same problem. Gave it to a friend and ordered it again.

So today it came and i was pretty disappointed that Nicks head was STILL wrong.

And no i couldn't send them back cause they were second hand. And i really don't know if i have enough nerves to seek im the bookstores.

First time it was fun

Second time i was not impressed

Third time i am kinda mad

Its probably not such a big deal...but it just bothers me

It finally arrived and I’m so happy 🥹 It’s so cute ✨❤️

Anyone else take the playlist that Charlie made for Nick and vice versa? I may or may not listen to the one Charlie made for Nick every single day… Also praise Nick Nelson for hiding the spoiler >:3

Hi 🍂

I can't find this illustration in digital version.

If anyone finds it, can you send me the link? Thx 🍂

The photo is not mine. It's from tessacarter_cosplay on IG

It seems from what others have said that I'm really in a minority here, but I thought Maxwell-Martin's performance was a lot stronger than Colman's.

Although I've liked Olivia Colman in other roles, I never quite felt she suited Sarah. Her energy just didn't quite feel right... she had an intensity to her that was overbearing. My mum made an interesting comparison with Tao's mum in terms of body language... when Tao's mum is encouraging Tao to open up to her, she sits alongside Tao so she's on his level and feels like his equal. Whereas Sarah (Colman incarnation) stares at Nick, in a way that I would find a bit uncomfortable if I was a teenager and not make me want to open up.

But Maxwell-Martin I thought interpreted the character in a way that suited the 'supportive mum' role. Firstly, her looks - she actually looks like she could be Kit Connor's mother. And secondly, she just wasn't quite as intense, and I thought that was a good thing. She managed to strike the balance of being kind enough that Nick would come to her and also detached enough that he doesn't feel that he has to and still has his freedom. I would have preferred to have Anna Maxwell-Martin from the start, in particular because I think her interpretation of the character is a better comparison with Charlie's parents (who are also overbearing, but I think were supposed to come across like that).

Having said that, Anna Maxwell-Martin needs boycotting! I'm still furious with her for accepting the role in the Harry Potter audiobooks, that's absolutely unforgivable after appearing in Heartstopper. But I liked her purely on a performance level.

I wish I could draw because I just thought of a cute art of Nick and Charlie where Nick went pro for rugby and so Charlie is taking care of Nick after all the tough pro practices and like making him tea and stuff