Nia, Swansea, age 25: my queer icons

Nia is from Swansea, age 25, and proudly queer. Our Wales Ambassador Izzy interviewed her about her queer inspirations!

This interview is part of our LGBTQ+ Stories of Wales collection - curated by, with, and for Wales' LGBTQ+ community. See more of the collection here, and submit your own contribution here.

How do your Welsh identity and queer identity come together? Do you feel a sense of Welsh pride, and/or a sense of LGBT+ pride?

I remember being in my mid-teens and watching "Pride" the film. Watching these queer people join forces with the miners to stand for a common cause was amazing. It gave me hope that even the most unlikely group of people can be allies and may even have opinions and ideals in common with us.

Who is your queer icon? Who inspires you to be proud?

I feel like David Bowie is and will always be iconic just because he paved the way for gender non-conforming art and brought it to a huge audience. Like, for anyone who tries to say "being non-binary is a Gen Z trend, men acted like men back in my day", I can just point them to Bowie. Also Freddie Mercury for similar reasons. Both inspired me to be more out there with my fashion and my queerness.

If you could meet your younger self today, what would you say?

The message I'd send to my younger self is, "It's okay to change your mind about your sexuality at any time." I've gone through sooo many labels; straight, bi, pan, lesbian. At the end of the day, sexuality is fluid and you should never feel guilty about being honest.

Thank you to Nia for sharing her story! If you are reading this and are interested in contributing a story to our collection, you can share videos or written contributions to info@itgetsbetter.org.uk. You can find our story collection on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or podcast, and here on our blog.