A post shared by Alice Oseman (@aliceoseman)In just a few years, 28-year-old Alice Oseman has gone from a beloved young adult novelist to a BAFTA-nominated showrunner, a two-time Children’s and Family Emmy-winning producer, and a global best-selling author and illustrator.
Their romantic comic series Heartstopper and its subsequent Netflix adaptation rocketed this writer into stardom — and they brought several young queer stars-to-be along with them.Two such young stars, Joe Locke and Kit Connor, star in the Heartstopper TV series as romantic leads Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson.
The characters were originally introduced as side characters in Oseman’s debut 2014 novel Solitaire, but fan response to the couple led the author to feature them further in the follow-up novellas Nick and Charlie and This Winter in 2015, and eventually expand their story into the Heartstopper webcomic in 2016.
While the previous works featured these characters as an established relationship, Heartstopper takes things back to the beginnings of the budding romance that made fans fall in love with them.The story follows 15-year-old Charlie, a neurotic and openly gay student at an all-boys school as he falls for his not-so-straight boy crush Nick, the school rugby star.