Queer Youth Animated is a new project from the Future Perfect Project. The team consists of Celeste Lecesne, Ryan Amador, Jon Wan, Julie Novak, and Emma Jane, based out of New York City, Kingston and Los Angeles. The project was initiated with the aim of encouraging youth belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community to share their stories in hopes of inspiring other members. The show features 2 seasons that start with heart warming stories in the United States and then expand to stories around the world. Bringing to light people’s stories from various walks of life, the show has inspired many to share their own journeys. Let Jejune Magazine take you through this interesting interview with the team at Future Perfect Project, and go check out what some of these inspiring kids have to say!

Where are you based?
The Future Perfect Project is a 501(c)(3) national arts initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of LGBTQIA+ youth. Our small team of working artists are located in New York City, Los Angeles, and Kingston, NY.

The Future Perfect Project (FPP) is an amazing organization that Jejune has spoken to in the past, but can you please remind our readers about what you do?
We offer in-person and online creative workshops for LGBTQIA+ youth nationwide, and we produce audio, film, and writing projects to amplify their voices and their vision of a better tomorrow — one in which everyone is free to be themselves.

Queer Youth Animated is a new project for The Future Project. What was the inspiration behind the show?
The young people we work with are the inspiration for everything we do. For five years, we've been working closely with them in schools and LGBTQ+ Centers around the United States, encouraging them to tell their stories. During the pandemic, as we spent time with them in our online creative workshops, we quickly discovered that there is much to celebrate about this current generation of LGBTQ+ youth — if only people could hear what they had to say.

With this in mind, we created a storytelling project that could shift the narrative about queer youth from a story of crisis and struggle to a story of joy, inspiration, and creativity. With “Queer Youth Animated,” we literally handed the mic over to the youth themselves and asked them to tell us about their life experiences. Then we edited each interview down to a two-minute clip and paired each clip with like-minded queer animators and composers to create a video portrait of what it’s like to be them. Is there anything more astonishing than a human being? Yes, a young QUEER human being!

You have quite a team: Celeste Lecesne, Julie Novak, and Emma Jayne. How did you all connect?
FPP operates from a core team of five, alongside a cohort of outside facilitators and producers. The core five are: Celeste Lecesne (co-founder and Artistic Director), Ryan Amador (co-founder and Associate Artistic Director), Jon Wan (Managing Director), and the QYA producers Julie Novak and Emma Jayne (Producer/Facilitators). Together we’re a collective of working artists who are dedicated to the idea that art can change the world, and we believe that young people ought to be given every opportunity to explore and express themselves as the living embodiment of that change. Each of us at FPP have been drawn to LGBTQ+ youth advocacy for a different reason, but we all share the experience of having had role models early on in our careers, mentors who showed us by example what it meant not only to be an artist, but to be a queer artist. We all feel that it’s time for us to be those role models for the next generation of queer artists, and pass along the encouragement and opportunities that were given to us.

Celeste: What has the initiation of the Trevor Project taught you about the LGBTQ+ community? And what do you think the project will look like in the future? Do you hope to involve more different forms of art?
CELESTE: Writing the story of TREVOR and watching it change the world taught me that being the author of one’s own story is a human right, and when we exercise that right, we expand beyond ourselves, get connected to the larger community, and inevitably become more and more ourselves as a collective. This is something that I believe every young person is yearning to experience: connection to a community and a more expanded sense of self. For the last five years, The Future Perfect Project has been my opportunity to turn this belief into action and awaken within the youth themselves a desire to tell their own stories.

The time has come to hear from a new generation of LGBTQ+ youth. It’s difficult to know exactly what FPP will look like in the future, but we are committed to discovering what that is by listening to the youth we serve. They are already living in a future that hasn’t yet arrived. Their art is showing us the way to go. Currently, we are working on our second album of original songs by twelve talented queer singer-songwriters. We are in the midst of producing a podcast created entirely by queer youth. And we are filming a series featuring intergenerational conversations between young queer activists and their elder counterparts.

Julie: What inspired you to start TMI? What does it aim to do?
JULIE: My partner Eva Tenuto and I, (actor and director respectively), had worked together on staging The Vagina Monologues in Upstate New York two years in a row as a fundraiser for the United Way Raising HOPE fund. Both performances brought in $20k for the organization, and Eva was asked to put up the show again, but she wanted to try something original instead. The cast of the show assembled into Eva’s living room and we began writing our own stories. It quickly became evident that what we each were writing about were things that we never told anyone — the “too much information” parts of our lives.

After staging the show, we noticed not only a transformation in the storytellers, who had been able to relieve themselves from shame and stigma, but also in the audience, as the stories prompted them to have deeper discussions with each other about things they had been holding onto. We realized that this process could be a tool in social justice movement building. This shaped our overarching mission: to help craft and amplify radically true stories to ignite human connection, challenge the status quo, and inspire both storytellers and listeners to take action for positive social change.

Emma: As a teaching artist at the FPP, what fascinates you or inspires you about today’s queer youth?
EMMA: I am incredibly inspired by their continuous quest of self discovery. They are open to being wrong about who they thought they were, trying out new types of gender presentation, experimenting with pronouns, all of it. A lot of folks my age, including myself, can be scared to embrace fluidity when it comes to identity. But how else are you going to know who you are unless you’ve tried out different ways to be you?

You have so many beautiful unique queer stories you have animated. What goes into deciding whose stories you will feature?
JULIE: After getting to know some of them more deeply through the work they have done in our writing workshops, we choose folx to speak to whose stories are intriguing or need to be heard — we aim to show the diversity and resilience within this generation of queer youth.

The animation is different for each one. How do you decide what type of animation and how to tell the different kids stories?
JULIE: Emma and I work hard to find animators whose styles we like, but more importantly, our first priority is to find artists whose identities align with the participant they are animating. We try to get as close as possible with ethnicity, cultural heritage, how they identify on the spectrum of LGBTQ+ (i.e. pansexual, lesbian, gay, asexual) and gender (i.e. non-binary, transmasculine, transgender, butch, femme). We are open to all different artistic styles and love the unique look of each animation.

How involved are the kids in telling their own stories?
JULIE: The young people are a part of the storytelling process from start to finish. The stories are wholly theirs, in their own words. Further, we have invited them to participate in the execution of their stories, (i.e. Christian scored his own story, some of Jaz’s own artwork is included in their animation). After editing we always give our participants the opportunity to provide feedback. And above all else, we prioritize their safety.

Can you tell us about the process of creating this show and the challenges faced, if any?
JULIE: We start by conducting an interview with them, done via Zoom, and ask questions about their experiences as queer youth in the context of the community they live in, their family of origin, their varied circumstances both internal and external. After the interview, Emma and I listen closely to the stories and begin to notice throughlines or hooks that drive them. From that core idea, we edit their stories down to 2-minute slices of their lives — unique snapshots of how they are responding to, and living within, the world at that moment. A world that often bumps up against them. One of the challenges we encountered early on was how to capture clean and professional sounding audio without the ability to sit down in person with the storytellers. Luckily, Emma came up with a method where the participants recorded themselves using their smartphones and a free app while they were doing the interviews and we were able to have that audio mastered by a professional sound engineer. The result was a clean vocal that sounded almost as good as being in a recording studio.

If Queer Youth Animated could teach audiences one thing, what would it be?
CELESTE: One thing these stories illustrate quite well is that everyone who is a part of the LGBTQIA+ community is unique. Also, young queer people are changing what it means to belong to the community.

JULIE: One of the biggest reasons I love this generation is because they know exactly who they are, even when they DON'T! Watching them experiment with different pronouns and try on different names, I was able to see their exploration not as a sign of confusion, but of CURIOSITY! They see the world as a Love Lab and are constantly mixing up customs, notions and traditions to create their own new ones.

EMMA: There’s nothing shameful about change. These queer youth are confident enough in themselves to know that exploring their identity doesn't mean a failure to understand themselves, but rather evidence that they love themselves enough to determine the most authentic way to live. They know something we don't.

We love that you cover all the different LGBTQ+ issues. Do you feel that there were any topics you really wanted to make sure you highlighted?
JULIE: I think that something that is really important to address is the intersectionality within the queer community. Whether it be the convergence of disabled and queer (Nestie) or being queer and practicing witchcraft (Fletcher). I also find it very important to address queer joy — the moment when Lucian’s mom introduces them to their dog for the first time or Brianna simply acknowledging, “My favorite part about being gay is just being gay,” and her love of her queer community.

Are there any stories that really stood out to you?
EMMA: I am really floored by Nestie’s story still to this day. They are a conjoined twin who, while being physically attached to their sibling, had to navigate their queer identity and sense of self. This is an example of someone who prioritizes self discovery in the face of many obstacles that could get in their way, like a potentially homophobic family, disability, and lack of privacy. More people should be like Nestie.

In Season 2 you expand to queer youth outside the US. What made you decide to go International?
JULIE: Due to the pandemic, we moved all of our workshops online, which opened our offerings to folx beyond the United States. There were two participants who consistently came to our writing workshops whose stories we wanted to highlight as part of our mission of representing diversity within the LGBTQ+ community.

CELESTE: Being young is a universal experience, and so is being queer.

What did you want to tackle differently in season 2?
EMMA: I saw Season 1 as queerness 101; a snapshot of LGBTQIA+ experience that was accessible and digestible. I think, in Season 2, I cared less about offending, ostracizing, and confusing a viewer that was unfamiliar with LGBTQIA+ identity and issues. Because the fact is, queer people are made to feel uncomfortable in straight spaces all the time. So why not push a straight person to tolerate discomfort for the sake of learning something new and expanding their mind? So yeah, we tackle topics like fetishization of trans bodies, religious trauma, the intersections of queerness and disability, and more. This is definitely a level up from Season 1. Also, we continued our effort of matching animators + composers to a particular interviewee based on what intersections of queer identities they share. In Nesti’s piece, the entire creative team was disabled. In Paras’ piece, the entire creative team was Asian. This is so important to us as the creative team can really understand pieces of the subject’s story since they’ve likely lived them.

Religion seems to be an occurring theme through Season 2. Why was this important?
CELESTE: According to research conducted by The Trevor Project, one in four LGBTQ youth reported that religion was “important” or “very important” to them. We felt that the best way to reflect that statistic was through a lens that was up close and personal. And so we asked the young people to tell us — in their own words — what faith and religion meant to them personally.

Will there be a Season 3 of Queer Youth Animated? If so, will there be new topics you want to address?
EMMA: If we can get the funding, I think we definitely want to make a third season of QYA! Like I mentioned, I see Season 1 as Queerness 101 and Season 2 as a little more explicit, so I would want to take Season 3 to graduate level. I’d like to talk to trans youth who are not medically transitioning and those who are + may be having trouble accessing care. I am very interested in a deeper dive into the intersection of religion and queerness, specifically those who are able to embrace the two. I also want to speak to youth who are living alongside a mental illness. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, beginning as early as 12, gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens may be at higher risk of binge-eating and purging than heterosexual peers. I want to figure out why that is. Or at the very least, give a voice to a queer young person struggling with food.

How do you think the Future Perfect Project is changing the way the LGBTQIA+ community engages with creative media?
EMMA: We are making queer folks the stars of our series. LGBTQIA+ people are not the sidekicks, the punchlines, or the cameos in the media we produce; they are the stars, at the center of the narrative. Queer people don’t have the luxury of seeing themselves represented as often as straight people in media, which can lead to consuming a lot of television, movies, and social media that doesn’t make you feel seen, heard, and celebrated. Queer people can see themselves represented in the media we make which, we hope, will empower queer folks to see themselves as the stars in their own life!

Are there any challenges that the FPP has faced and continues to tackle?
CELESTE: While lawmakers are working overtime to pass laws and propose measures to limit the self-expression of queer youth in schools and communities, FPP is encouraging the next generation to speak their truth and sing their songs of tomorrow. Now more than ever, we need their vision of a better world.

RYAN: I think our greatest challenge is spreading the word about what we do to more platforms, partnerships, and people who need to hear about it. Not only reaching youth that would benefit from our programs, but also amplifying their voices to the eyes and ears of non-queer-people who would otherwise not be able to get a sense of their self-expression. So our next big step as an organization is to expand our reach.

It has been a rough few years, how have you been staying positive during these times?
CELESTE: Young adults are remarkably adept at making the necessary adjustments to their schedules and habits. They certainly proved that to us when we began to meet with them online during the pandemic. We were continually surprised by their willingness to show up and forge ahead as though the pandemic was just the latest in a series of unreasonable expectations being forced upon them. They are adolescents after all with their whole lives ahead of them, a segment of the population neurologically pitched toward tomorrow with all the hope a youthful brain can muster, always pushing themselves toward a promised but uncertain future. How could we not be hopeful ourselves? How could we not join them in working to create a better world, one in which everyone is free to be themselves?

RYAN: It’s been such a blessing to experience the pandemic through a queer youth lens. For them, it hasn’t been as much about hitting pause on all the things they were up to (like my age group and older). For them, I think it’s been about observing a world that needs to change, one they are about to step into as young adults, and strategizing new pathways toward a better future for us all.

What is your motto in life?
CELESTE: The words of Toni Cade Bambara - “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”

RYAN: Yeah, I’d say that's the company motto as well :)

To know more about Queer Youth Animated and the team behind it, please follow:
Thefutureperfectproject.org
Instagram: thefutureperfectproject
http://onerpm.link/notwhatyoupictured
Watch Queer Youth Animated here: https://watch.revry.tv/details/38782?playlist_id=561

Queer Youth Animated - Through the Lens of the LGBTQIA+ Youth