A question as old as time and one that has frequently been explored in the world of TikTok…who was your gay/lesbian awakening? Whether it is an actress that you had an obsession with, a movie/ tv character, or even a cartoon *cough, Shego cough* there is most likely a moment you can look back on as the first but probably not the last gay awakening of your childhood. Looking back as a fully-fledged lesbian it is so obvious to me now that I did not want to ‘be her’ I wanted to ‘be with her.’ If it wasn’t for all the compulsory heterosexuality I was around in my young life maybe I would have figured out that most girls don’t have four different Eliza Dushku posters on their bedroom wall unless they like the ladies…
These are our top ten lesbian awakenings in no particular order as every dyke has different tastes..duh.
- Haley Graham in Stick it. Every lesbian of a certain age will remember the ice bath scene from this movie. I also remember the start of the movie where Haley played by a shredded Missy Peregrym is riding a pushbike wearing boys clothes and at first we think she is a boy. Imagine the surprise to 10 year old me when we find out she is a hot masc dressing lesbian. I don’t think they explicitly out her in the movie as gay, but you only need to take one look at this outfit……
2. Missy Pantone in Bring it on. Anyone who has ever read anything on this blog knows that Eliza Dushku was my Lesbian awakening. I have had an obsession with her since the age of 10. However, my specific lesbian awakening would have to be Eliza Dushku as Missy Pantone in Bring it on. When she strutted into that gym with the fake tattoo, my ten-year-old self could not handle it. When she unclipped that wallet chain I knew I had found the love of my life.
3. Shego in Kim Possible. It is not often that a cartoon can be so universally regarded as queer-coded, but Shego certainly is. When Shego and Kim would fight they definitely seemed like more than arch enemies. I could totally see an arc in the series where Kim saves Shego from her evil ways and they go from enemies to lovers. What is it with lesbians and the enemies to lovers trope? we seem to love it a bit too much. Alas, Shego is certainly one that made us all question ourselves during the early morning cartoon watching before school.
4. Lauren Jauregui from fifth harmony. Remember the days in the early 2010’s when we were all shipping Lauren Jauregui and Camilla Cabello as if they were secretly a couple? Even straight girls were into this pairing for some strange reason. Either way there is no doubt that Lauren was a gay awakening for a lot of us and it helps that she is bisexual in real life.
5. Miss Honey from Matilda. If you didn’t watch Matilda as a child and want miss honey to adopt you then are you even gay? You could have had the best home life in the world and that would still not have stopped you from moving out to live with Miss Honey in her cottage core house with a 30-year age gap. Of course, you were only 8 and she was 35 but who cares about that, the love for Miss Honey was real.
6. Jade West – Victorius. I mean is there any hot, kind of mean goth that lesbians don’t have a crush on? She could certainly crush my heart with a pair of steel-toed doc martins any time.
7. Hermoine Granger from Harry Potter. If you were ever asked “who is hotter Ron or Harry?” but the first answer that popped into your head was “Hermoine”….then same girl same. Harry Potter is such a staple book and movie series from our childhoods and despite my current feelings towards JK Rowling, I had to include Hermoine in this list.
8. Kristen Stewart in anything she has ever been in. I maintain that I knew Kristen Stewart would grow up to be a smoking hot lesbian back when I first saw the movie Panic Room. However when she first shot to fame in Twilight at the peak of her Femme presenting look, who could have known we could end up with the short-haired, sexy hot gay Kristen that we currently have in 2022?
9. Carmen from Spy Kids even if this one does show my age. Not only did I want to be a spy kid after watching this movie, I specifically wanted to be a spy kid alongside Carmen. We could totally save the world from evil and use all our cool spy gadgets to do so. Ahh to be ten years old again.
10. Kiera Knightly as Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe this was leftover crushing on Kiera Knightly from Bend it Like Beckham but she was so hot in this movie. Of course, at the time, you told all your friends you loved Orlando Bloom….. but we know the truth, sis.
Do any of these make your list of lesbian/gay/wlw awakenings? I would love to hear which ones I have missed?