Our Purpose

Growing up in a traditional Chinese household, I heard those around me slander the LGBTQIA+ community before I even grasped the concept of identity. To further this, I was sent into private Christian education for the first crucial 9 years of schooling. The pivotal moment that drastically altered my perception of sexuality, was my encounter with the internet. 

I am grateful I was given a clear idea of what it means to be LGBTQIA+ before someone I looked up to called a gay couple disgusting to my face, before I processed why my fifth grade teacher sat our entire class down and told us to repent our sins to god if we dared like the same gender. I think it is because of this early exposure, that I did not fall into the ideals surrounding me.

During quarantine, although it is a privilege to speak so lightly about those times, I was given a chance to fully explore who I was. Looking back, I had coincidentally entered the online community at a high of open mindedness and LGBTQIA+ content that dominated mainstream social media. My first conscious exposure was those Gacha Life mini movies on YouTube that starred often lesbian characters, planting the very seeds that were destined to sprout. Maturing a bit since then, anime was the first and probably only medium I still consume to this day that threw open the gates of sexuality for me. Watching characters go through the same thoughts and experiences that I had, I began starting to label and feel less alone in the feelings that had followed me around all my previous years, able to find direction and finally form a sense of identity.

As the environment I was situated in was discouraging to say the least, I began to find comfort in the idea that there were people like me out there. I had discovered, that consuming media like anime was the best way for me to find that connection.

I hope other youth are able to find that same reassurance through anime, and through this blog. I would like to clearly establish that this is a safe space for discussion and a place where anyone can feel validated for who they are.