In just a few years, 28-year-old Alice Oseman has gone from a beloved young adult novelist to a BAFTA-nominated showrunner, a two-time Children’s and Family Emmy-winning producer, and a global best-selling author and illustrator. Their romantic comic series Heartstopper and its subsequent Netflix adaptation rocketed this writer into stardom — and they brought several young queer stars-to-be along with them.
Two such young stars, Joe Locke and Kit Connor, star in the Heartstopper TV series as romantic leads Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson. The characters were originally introduced as side characters in Oseman’s debut 2014 novel Solitaire, but fan response to the couple led the author to feature them further in the follow-up novellas Nick and Charlie and This Winter in 2015, and eventually expand their story into the Heartstopper webcomic in 2016. While the previous works featured these characters as an established relationship, Heartstopper takes things back to the beginnings of the budding romance that made fans fall in love with them.
The story follows 15-year-old Charlie, a neurotic and openly gay student at an all-boys school as he falls for his not-so-straight boy crush Nick, the school rugby star. The comic had built a dedicated fanbase by the time the story’s television rights were sold to See-Saw Films in 2019, and while the onset of the COVID pandemic put a hold on development, Netflix officially ordered a series adaptation in early 2021.
The series debuted in April of 2022 to rave success, becoming one of the top ten English series on the streamer in just two days. The show reached such a large viewership that within a month of the show’s debut, Netflix ordered two more seasons of the show at once.
“There’s a lot on TV now that has queer content, but it’s definitely for adults,” Oseman told TUDUM. “A lot of queer stories are still very serious or focused on trauma.”
While Heartstopper has its share of trauma that it addresses (especially as it enters season two and approaches the events that take place in Solitaire), the author has always intended to have the series keep up a loving and hopeful tone.
“For me, it’s just about celebrating queer joy,” they explain. “Above all, I hope that it just makes people smile and brightens their day — but I also hope that it inspires, particularly young queer people, to believe that they can find happiness and find romance and find friendship.”
Though her most successful project to date centers a romance, Oseman herself is aromantic and asexual. Her 2020 novel Loveless explores the dichotomy of the collective romantic ideal and aromantic identity, an identity she hopes to see better represented in media going forward.
Oseman has expressed frustration with the current state of aro/ace representation, stating to The Guardian, “We’re never really going to see much cultural change in terms of awareness until a big celebrity comes out as being asexual,” but she’s doing her best to make representation of her own with characters like Georgia Warr in Loveless, Isaac Henderson in the Heartstopper TV series, and her original main character Tori Spring.
While this author attempts to make large-scale impact by creating more popular, positive queer narratives for teens and young adults, they’ve also made a specific impact on the lives of the young LGBTQ+ up-and-comers involved in their series. Actors like Locke and trans series regular Yasmin Finney had no acting credits to their names before responding to the open call for Heartstopper, while Connor had a handful of notable childhood credits including Rocketman and Ready Player One.
Now, the cast members have millions of followers across social media, are regularly splashed across the covers of publications like Vogue and GQ, and have big ticket roles already in production. Locke is joining the MCU in the highly anticipated Disney+ series Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Connor is starring in the upcoming film adaptation of the best-selling 2019 YA novel A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, and Finney is joining the Doctor Who franchise as Donna Noble’s daughter, Rose.
With the current rocky state of queer politics in the UK, especially in regards to queer youth, it’s crucial that stories to help represent and uplift young LGBTQ+ people continue to flourish. Not only is Oseman helping share stories, but she’s helping make new, shining examples of how prosperous life for young queer adults can be.
Check out the teaser for the upcoming second season of Heartstopper, premiering August 3rd:
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