SLUG HERE George from The Famous Five AND THE OTHER CULTURAL ICONS OF A WOMAN

As Pride month continues, writer Lotte Jeffs honours the women who shaped her as a young

recently retrieved a box of old I baby clothes from my mum’s loft so I could hand them down to my first child (due to be born, auspiciously, on the day of London Pride). In it I found some of my old school books. While my friends covered theirs with pictures of boys from pop bands, mine were collaged with coded lesbian images: James Dean (beautiful and butch), Audrey Hepburn (girlfriend goals) and The Basketball Diaries- era Leo (boyish but pretty – a dream lesbian combo). No one would guess I was gay. How normcore these role models seem now, compared to the plethora of cool, out girls such as King Princess, Rowan Blanchard, Willow Smith and Amandla Stenberg that today’s teens can look up to. My pin-ups came from a more limited pool, but my school-book collages were just for show. These are the women who really helped me define my self and my sexuality.

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George Anna Nolan Amandla from The I religiously watched Stenberg the first season of Big A few weeks ago, actor Famous Brother in 2000. Mostly and activist Amandla because there was an Five Stenberg came out as actual gay woman in the I’m sure Enid Blyton gay. She’d previously house: Anna Nolan, the is turning in her grave spoken about being non skateboarding ex-nun at the idea that amid binary and hating labels, who played the guitar the raft-building and so how refreshing it was and was funny in the way lashings of ginger beer, to hear those two simple I aspired to be. The big tomboy George was words “I’m gay” spoken. news for me, as I finished actually a baby dyke I was worried kids today sixth form, was that she or even (cripes!) might feel basic if they was gay and people still . But lines were ‘just’ gay, given how liked her. The public voted such as, “I hate being openly people now speak her runner-up. Maybe, a girl. I won’t be. I don’t about the spectrum of Ellen I thought, being a lesbian The cast of like doing the things that sexuality. If I’d been 18 in wasn’t just something girls do. I like doing the DeGeneres The L Word 2018 I would have been people should ‘tolerate’ things that boys do”, of If emojis had existed thrilled that someone so but that people should were hugely exciting for Ellen [1997] changed in 2004 when I first cool had come out as celebrate. Anna was the me to read as a pre-teen. my life. I was 15 and saw The L Word, I would gay. Today, other LBTQ first real (as in not Ellen) Not that I wanted to be I watched the sitcom have broken my phone women of colour such gay woman I’d seen in a boy myself, I wasn’t squeezed on the sofa with the number of as are the public eye and she even a particularly good between my mum and heart eyes I’d have sent speaking for the doubly was cool. She was the tomboy (with Hello Kitty dad every Friday night. everyone. Only other discriminated, and same mix of butch and bows in my hair and We didn’t know the will understand portrayals of our queer femme I thought I was being crap at anything protagonist was gay, but the seismic impact community are more and watching her be outdoorsy) but I wished I always felt there was a show about successful, diverse than ever. reunited with her I had a friend like something intriguing sexy, glamorous gay However, there’s still girlfriend on national TV George. When the BBC about her. It was partly women in LA had on some way to go until we was a huge moment – adapted the books for her preppy outfits (which our community. Finally, reach true representation. they held hands and it TV in 1995, I couldn’t I tried to emulate) and here was something And while I’d love to see wasn’t pretend! It would get enough of it. The partly her confidence portraying different kinds more examples of lesbian be four years until civil girl playing George, with and attitude – she wasn’t of lesbians, from funny couples having children, partnerships arrived, but her short curly hair and like other young women to hyper femme, butch I’m starting to think it’s the summer Anna Nolan mischievous smile, was I saw on TV. I had just to bisexual, transgender, time I became came out of the Big exactly as I imagined her. started to question my sort-of-straight and (my the role model Brother house was the At 13, she represented own sexuality. My best favourite) the insanely I long for myself. summer I came out in to me an otherness friend had told me he hot androgynous lothario full force, and went out about myself I couldn’t was gay the year before Shane. And thanks to For more Pride content, into the world as my yet articulate and I think and I didn’t want to look Bette and Tina, it was pick up tomorrow’s special most authentic self. I was in love. Skip ahead as if I was copying him, the first time I’d seen issue of our brother 15 years and imagine but when I went with him two women conceiving magazine, ShortList my surprise when my to an LGBT youth group, “MAYBE, and parenting a child best straight mate I finally felt like I fitted in. I THOUGHT, together. As a journalist introduced me to his So this was all spinning BEING A for the gay press at new girlfriend Jemima around my head as I sat the time, I went to an Rooper, the actor who watching the moment LESBIAN WAS L Word convention played George. She’s that Ellen accidentally SOMETHING where fans met the stars a good friend now but announces she’s gay PEOPLE of the show. There was only recently did I muster over the Tannoy in an Beatles-level hysteria. the courage to tell her airport. I remember SHOULD My god, I thought, are we

THE FAMOUS FIVE® AND ENID BLYTON® ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF HODDER AND STOUGHTON LIMITED. © 2018 HODDER & STOUGHTON STOUGHTON & 2018 HODDER © LIMITED. STOUGHTON AND HODDER OF TRADEMARKS ARE REGISTERED BLYTON® ENID AND FIVE® THE FAMOUS REX ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY: ELLEN SOPER/LAURA EILEEN BY ILLUSTRATIONS RESERVED. RIGHTS ALL LIMITED. she was my first crush. crying, weeping actually, CELEBRATE” really this desperate to because it made me see aspirational versions feel so many things of ourselves on screen I didn’t know what to that a pretty low-budget do with. My parents show with a not great couldn’t understand script and increasingly my overreaction and unbelievable story lines I couldn’t explain it. (who did kill Jenny?) was It was so monumentally enough for us? Yes, was powerful to see the answer. Yes, yes, a woman on telly say yes! Let’s hope rumours those words for the of a are true. first time ever and know Now I’ve morphed from that one day, probably a Shane to a Bette, I’m quite soon, I’d have keen to see if I still feel to say them myself. the same love for them.