Positive impact of Teenage LGBT Representation on Television Spoilers Alert

"Tonight was different. Tonight I was living the dream. I was buying my girlfriend a drink and nothing could stop me." Kim

'Sugar Rush' was the first open lesbian/bisexual teen show I saw on television for two reasons obviously!! First one being Lenora Crichlow (yep first lesbian crush) second being it was a show kind of expressing how I felt about girls. I'd often heard about 'The L Word' but it came on too late and it was far too graphic for teenage me who blushed at everything and probably would have been accused of watching porn (not really a show that a teenager wants to be caught watching by their parents). 'Sugar Rush' came on once a week(could watch the next episode on E4 which I did but then you were constantly a week ahead) and you were lead through the confused thoughts and feeling of Kim as she tried to restrain herself from both admitting and confiding in her best friend Sugar that she is a lesbian and in love with her. Kim eventually falls out of the closet is the best way to describe it, initially she's horrified but she soon accepts it and tries to date someone only to be pulled back in by Sugar at the last minute. These two sort of have a brief happily ever after but it is soon shattered when Sugar is arrested. This show not only made me feel somewhat normal but it also reassured me that being a girl who was interested in girls was not an issue, you just had to be brave enough to come out and tell your friends and family in your own time. Maybe they'll accept it maybe they won't but as long as your open with yourself you'll be fine. However the show also conjured up a few theories...was Sugar in fact in love with Kim too but afraid of her feelings (in that are some girls too shy to come out due to various different reasons but will come out in their own time?) Was Sugar afraid of her feelings for Kim and so went on a guy rampage and shared all the explicit details with Kim to gage her reaction to it to see if she too is interested in Sugar in the same way? Was it really just a one off between the two girls? A way of a sweet goodbye before their actions caught up with them?
Sugar Rush also showed me that there are children out there with parents of the same sex who are treated just the same as of that of a child with heterosexual parents. Tom, Kim's next door neighbor has two Dad's. When you watched the interaction between Tom and one of his Dad's after he is rejected by Kim who finally admits that she is a lesbian, you realize that it mirrors that of any other Dad. His reaction to his son isn't any different just because he is gay. It's blatantly obvious that the love between them is also the same, the only difference is that Tom feels he has to make it known that just because his Dad's are gay does not automatically mean he is gay. Which I now find very interesting as it's like the show was trying to show then that gay parents does not = gay children!!!

Ashley Davies: "Whatever people consider to be normal, it never is."

'South of Nowhere' yet another show based around teenage sexuality and high school, the complete opposite from 'Sugar Rush' as the teens in this show were somewhat more open and accepting of their sexuality (as well as me yet again fancying the main characters Spencer and Ashley, thankfully when I got caught watching this show since it was so innocent there were very few questions ). What I took from this show is that it's okay not to fit in, to not be the same as your friends, to not want the same things. Just be true to yourself and in time if people really love and care for you they will eventually see things your way or leave your life as they never really loved you in the first place. Ashley showed me that you didn't need anyone's acceptance to be who you are, as her mother wasn't exactly maternal nor was she impressed that her only daughter/child was bisexual or maybe in fact a lesbian. That true friends accept you no matter what the past holds (Aidan was always there when Ashley needed him partially because he is in love with her and because he knows she has a good heart so he doesn't want anyone to take advantage of her.) That you should never give up on your one true love, it takes love, understanding and patience for a relationship to work. You may go through your ups and downs, break ups but.....if you're meant to be with your one true love then nothing will stop you from being together. Patience is they key.