Tonight I watched Alex Strangelove and towards the end my mother asked me what it was contributing to my intellect. What she doesn't understand as a cis white heterosexual woman is how much seeing ourselves in the media effects us. When Alex comes out publicly as gay at the end... I cried. Because the entire movie understood. It understood the fight within me I experienced to learn to accept myself and figure out who I really was. I was watching that movie because I needed validation. I needed validation that what I'm feeling is ok. Is real. That who I am is ok. Love, Simon did that for me as well. (Spoiler) When Simon's mother talks to him in the living room after he comes out she says, "I need you to hear this: You are still you ... you get to exhale now. You get to be more you than you have been in a very long time. You deserve everything you want." If someone had told me that when I came out... It's what I was feeling but to hear those words even then, more than a year later, was more validating than anything. (End spoiler) I am still me. I need a reminder that I am me and I am ok and without seeing people like me in the media, not only movies but books and other things too, I feel like I'm not alone, and like who I am isn't abnormal and weird. Don't forget about me when you write. Don't forget about us.