To celebrate the start of a new school year in the United States, LGBTIQ+ youth organisation It Gets Better Project has launched a powerful new social media campaign, turning a spotlight on the childhoods of well-known queer personalities.
The campaign, called Queerbook, invited a number of LGBTIQ+ celebrities to share their childhood school photos along with some advice for their younger selves - namely, that it does get better.
Stars to dust off their old photo albums for the cause include Amber Heard, Keiynan Lonsdale, Queer Eye's Bobby Berk and Drag Race finalist Shangela.
“All the struggles and hardships were just molding me into the strong empathetic successful woman I am today,” former Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels writes alongside her photo.
“Without those experiences to build my character I doubt I’d have accomplished a fraction of what I have.”
“It not only gets better,” writes drag performer Shangela, “it gets sick’ning! Halelloo!!”
“They used to say I acted like a girl," reflects actor Johnny Sibilly. "Joke's on them, because acting like a girl is what launched my career.”
Trans actress Nicole Maines, who plays Dreamer in Supergirl, shared her 'glow-up' snaps on Twitter, writing: “Being the only trans kid doing theater in a cafeteria in rural Maine, becoming a professional actor seemed, safe to say, impossible."
She added: "Now, I’m the first transgender superhero on television. Your childhood experiences do not define you. There’s always an upswing.”
