Heartstopper is a British teen romantic-comedy-drama that aired on Netflix. It’s based on the eponymous graphic novels by Alice Oseman, focusing on teenagers Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) as they meet at school and their friendship turns into a relationship. The show ran for three seasons and, in conclusion, had a final film, Heartstopper Forever. The show’s second season deals with bi erasure when Nick comes out to his community.
Heartstopper triumphs in multiple aspects — it’s appropriate viewing for teens and showcases that specific, everyday experiences are actually universal. It also demonstrates how social media is often central to modern teens’ lives, and how their public face online can affect their identity and how they move through society, or how they’re perceived. It’s warm, informed, and positive.
Near the end of the first season, Nick realizes his feelings for Charlie are confusing. He struggles with whether he can be attracted to boys if he has also been attracted to girls his whole life. He looks up the “bi 101” type of questions/quizzes many people do when questioning their orientation, then comes out in the scene above to his mother, Sarah (Olivia Coleman). His mom is supportive, accepting, and holds space for him, rendering a great bi coming-out scene for the ages. In fact, the moment is so tender and meaningful it has been used by fans to help them come out to their family. (One young fan anonymously wrote about her experience for an article in Today.) Connor noted the news was “the most gratifying moment of my career.” Even years later, professional interviewers like Thomas Duke with Colman still bring up the scene for its power.
Season 2 continues in this positive and progressive fashion. Heartstopper does not shy away from using the terms “bi” or “bisexual”. Nick’s bisexuality is not used as a plot twist. Instead, Nick experiences the difficulties of bi erasure and identity maintenance many bi people face by sticking to his guns and consistently (and iconically) reminding everyone, “I’m bi, actually.”
Heartstopper was a huge commercial success. By the second week of its release, it was a Top 10 series, viewed in over 54 countries worldwide. It also won many awards – including seven Children and Family Emmys and three GLAAD Media Awards. Its release was considered such a seismic show event that AP News documented it; its first season’s success was quantitatively attributed to more, better queer representation across television for many years to come.
The show was ultimately also satisfying to the creator as well. Oseman later spoke in an interview (linked above) on Netflix about how they felt the series showed the joy of the queer experience on screen, and how they wished they’d had a show featuring queer characters like them on screen while growing up.
Heartstopper also won major critical praise. The A.V. Club lauded Nick’s journey to “begin to grasp and accept his bisexuality without any forced drama,” while the Guardian appreciated that the subject of bisexuality was “handled with care”. Time noted that the show had “changed countless lives” for young queer viewers around the world. Teen Vogue hailed the show’s handling of bi erasure in the second season in an excellent think-piece about the continued identity maintenance bi people and characters need to endure:
This kind of erasure, alongside more obvious forms of biphobia, has been extensively theorized to contribute to the higher rates of depression and anxiety among bi people … Heartstopper explores this when Nick attempts to come out to friends, and we see the self-hating, negative stereotypes he’s internalized swirling above his head: ‘pick a side’, ‘cheater’, ‘I should have known you’d turn out to be gay’, ‘liar’. That’s why seeing a main character voice and name their bisexuality proudly, despite the erasure he faces, feels so important — especially in a show aimed at young people who may be grappling with complicated feelings about their own sexualities … If Nick’s character says it [“I’m bi, actually”] a lot, it’s about time.
However, not all of Heartstopper’s history is entirely affirming. Connor was accused by toxic online fans of a form of queerbaiting after being photographed with a girlfriend. In 2022, he quit Twitter over the harassment from fans and the paparazzi, before logging on once more to come out publicly as bi:
back for a minute. i’m bi. congrats for forcing an 18 year old to out himself. i think some of you missed the point of the show. bye.
Both creator Oseman and co-star Coleman immediately leaped to Connor’s defense. Oseman tweeted at the time:
I truly don’t understand how people can watch Heartstopper and then gleefully spend their time speculating about sexualities and judging based on stereotypes.
As noted by Variety when being interviewed at the premiere of Empire of Light, Colman stated:
I am so proud of him, but I am not proud of how people bullied him. I think people should be allowed to have their own journey.
Connor’s harassment of him for outing himself reflected a larger conversation about straight or queer actors/celebrities playing queer roles or engaging in queer markers, and fans’ role in refraining from invading their privacy in the depiction of queer characters in the community. In 2023, Connor spoke more deeply about the outing incident during a Vogue interview – about his own bi realizations, where he thought the derision came from, his response to the bullying, and how he feels now about his bisexuality:
It was just a very natural process for me; I didn’t really have an ‘oh, shit’ moment. It just became more and more evident… It’s the experience of maybe you’re too straight to be gay, and you’re too gay to be straight. So it’s like, ‘Where do I sit?’ But I feel much more secure in myself now… I just felt like it wasn’t something I was ready to talk about… I would have preferred to do it [coming out] another way. I also don’t know if I would have ever done it. But at the end of the day, I don’t regret it. In many ways, it was really empowering.
In 2026, during the Heartstopper Forever press tour, Connor also commented on a later tweet, writing that he is “comfortable and confident in his sexuality,” and that people do not have the right to know others’ sexuality:
That tweet was sort of slightly calling them out, but I also found it a little bit funny how they [fans] just make assumptions. It feels a bit strange to make assumptions about people’s sexuality based on hearing their voice or seeing their appearance. I feel like that’s a very interesting, sort of problematic assumption to make.
Heartstopper is a heartwarming, tender, and beautiful example of bi representation — both in Nick’s coming out as well as his handling of bi erasure in following seasons. It’s widely considered to be an excellent, watershed moment in male bi characters on television, and a fantastic example of bi joy on the small screen.