‘Willow and Tara gave me hope in a confusing time’: Queer women pay tribute to Buffy Heartstopper moment
In 2022, Heartstopper arrived on Netflix, and everything changed.It was an absolute gift for LGBTQ+ teens and young people, centering around two teenage boys who figure out their feelings for each other, without any death, disaster or gratuitous cruelty.For LGBTQ+ people who had grown up before, positive representation of same-sex couples were few and far between – but they did exist, and they were just as important.As Pride month comes to a close, Metro.co.uk are catching up with LGBTQ+ people about the on-screen romances that meant everything to them growing up.We’ve heard how Emily and Naomi from Skins helped young queer women to accept their own sexuality, as up-and-down as their relationship was.Now we’re diving into another iconic, trailblazing couple: Willow and Tara, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.While their story was far from a happy-ever-after, their feelings for each other, eventual relationship and Willow’s emotional coming out to Buffy in a major show in the 1990’s had a huge impact at the time- and still does today.Tara and Willow is still the most relatable queer couple for Emma, even 20 years after she show endedEmma is 17 years old and growing up in an era where LGBTQ+ relationships on Tare far more common than it used to be – but Willow and Tara’s is the one she resonates with the most.‘I have seen countless other shows with [woman-loving-woman] relationships,’ she says, listing out the likes of Orange Is The New Black, The L Word and The 100.‘But none of them resonated with me as much as Tara and Willow did.’Having just recently finished watching Buffy for the first time, Emma says she responded to how ‘normal the characters are,’ and the fact they are her own age.Even 20 years on from when Buffy first.
