Rowan Blanchard Is Changing The LGBTQ Conversation In Hollywood

Rowan Blanchard may only be 14, but she's already changing Hollywood. Specifically, the conversation around LGBTQ representation. In an interview with Cosmopolitan, the Girl Meets World star talked about what it's been like since she publicly came out as queer earlier this year in a tweet that supported her Disney show having more LGBTQ representation. "For me, it was no big deal," she said, "but for the rest of the world it was like, 'Whoa!' like it was such a big deal. That kind of annoyed me. And the fact that it is still such a big deal." She told the magazine that "queer" to her means "not subscribing to this binary of like, 'You’re straight or you’re gay, and that’s it. There’s no in between. That’s all you’ll ever be.'" Though, she understands that different generations have a different take on her being queer. To her though, it never seemed anything less than normal, explaining that she's from Los Angeles and "one of my best friends had two moms." "It was never a thing that my parents sat me down and talked to me about," she said of sexuality. "I think I went home one day and was like, 'Wait, so, there’s more [to marriage] than a boy marrying a girl?' My mum said, 'Yeah,' I said, 'OK,' and that was it. That was the end of the conversation."

But, it's not the end of the conversation when it comes to how Hollywood treats LGBTQ characters and storylines. In Blanchard's opinion Hollywood has "always profited off of queer stories and I think that maybe people in Hollywood are a bit more accepting in general, although I'm still trying to figure that out." Taking the time to figure that out, also means taking the time to realise actors aren't always the characters that they play. "I think people forget that there is more to a celebrity than what they see on the screen," she said. "I’m guilty of this too. I think everybody is. It’s like, you grow up watching this person on TV or in movies and they don’t really seem real." However, that doesn't mean she's going to sit back and wait for the conversation of LGBTQ representation to change. Instead, she's leading the way. Just last night, she retweeted a message that made her opinions clear about trans representation on TV: "i look forward to seeing a trans woman win an emmy." If you need more proof that Blanchard is going to change Hollywood, just read her take on intersectional feminism. Clearly, Blanchard is 14 going on 30, and we totally cool with that.