Heartstopper started out like all crushes: It was something that author, artist, and screenwriter Alice Oseman couldn’t stop thinking about, something they kept returning to because it made them feel excited and just good. “I literally was just making it for fun,” Oseman tells Tudum over Zoom. “It brought me so much happiness.”
Over the years, though, that blossoming, warm crush turned into something even bigger. In 2016, a 22-year-old Oseman started writing and illustrating Heartstopper as a web comic. It was a passion project for the young writer, who had already published two young adult novels, including Solitaire, written when they were just 17, and Radio Silence.
Nick and Charlie, the awkward, sweet couple at the center of Heartstopper, first appear as supporting characters in Solitaire, but Oseman found themself still thinking about the duo after they finished the book. In 2020, they told Comics Beat that writing out Nick and Charlie’s story in novel form didn’t feel right. So, in August 2016, they started self-publishing bite-size bimonthly webcomics about the couple on Tapas and Tumblr.
The premise of Heartstopper is delightfully straightforward: Charlie, a neurotic, soft-spoken openly gay high school student, forms an unlikely friendship with Nick, a popular, gentle and — he assumes — straight athlete. They start texting, confiding in one another about pressures at school, and Nick even convinces Charlie to join the rugby team. Eventually, their bond turns romantic, and they stick by each other’s side as they cope with coming out, issues within their friend groups and bullying.
Their story resonated with millions of fans. In 2018, Oseman opened a Kickstarter to self-publish a limited number of physical copies and raised $25,223 in just 24 hours. In 2019, Hachette published the first of several volumes of the comic, and the same year, Heartstopper was optioned by See-Saw Films to be developed as a TV series. “They asked if I wanted to try writing the show,” recalls Oseman. “I’d never written a screenplay before, so I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll try. But if it doesn’t work out, that’s fine. But I did and they really liked it, so I ended up writing the entire show.”
Oseman wrote and executive produced the eight-episode series, which closely follows the first two volumes of Heartstopper. Building the world of the comic for the screen proved to be an exciting endeavor for Oseman, but also a challenging one, especially when it came to finding young, skilled actors to bring the story to life. “We wanted young actors, we wanted to cast authentically, [and] we obviously needed talented people,” Oseman says. “So we knew it was going to be a difficult, difficult task. But somehow, they just found their way to us.”
They found their Nick and Charlie in newcomer Joe Locke and Kit Connor (Rocketman, His Dark Materials). Most of the process happened over Zoom, but the final audition was in person. It was when Oseman saw Locke and Connor together in the same room that sealed the deal. “They did the scene that leads up to the first kiss,” they recall. “We knew already that they were both really talented actors, but we had to know if the dynamic would work, if there was chemistry, and if they could carry the romance of Nick and Charlie. And they smashed it. It was just like Nick and Charlie had come to life in front of me.”
Seeing the characters they created materialize had a huge impact on Oseman, who has long seen and felt the gap on-screen when it comes to representation. Growing up, they found solace in young adult novels, but when it came to hopeful queer television for teenagers, there wasn’t a lot that they could turn to. Still, Oseman wishes there were more programs geared toward younger queer people.
“There’s a lot on TV now that has queer content, but it’s definitely for adults,” they say. And even now, they add, “a lot of queer stories are still very serious or focused on trauma.”
Queer romance and joy is, still, groundbreaking storytelling — and it’s exactly why Oseman’s comics resonated with so many readers. Nick and Charlie, along with the show’s other queer characters, are given the kind of pure, happy, marquee rom-com moments that, for far too long, have been reserved for straight couples. In one scene, a drenched, disheveled Nick shows up to Charlie’s house in the rain, à la Mr. Darcy, Ryan Gosling in The Notebook, and so many rom-com heroes that came before. In another swoony moment, Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) and Tara (Corinna Brown) — a lesbian couple who befriend Charlie and Nick — finally take their relationship public with a sweeping, spotlighted and impeccably soundtracked kiss at a party.
“I always think a trope is a trope for a reason,” Oseman says. “Tropes can feel overused. But when it’s featuring marginalized characters, you probably haven’t seen that as much as you think you have.”
Heartstopper does have its serious moments; there’s definitely angst, and later installments of the comic cover some heavier mental health-related topics. But what makes Nick and Charlie’s story so uniquely comforting is an undeniable undercurrent of hope. No matter what they go through, both characters always have a strong network of friends, supportive family members and empathetic teachers.
And, of course, they have each other. One of the show’s most poignant storylines sees Nick question his sexuality — he’s unsure if he’s gay, bisexual or just really into this one guy. Charlie, who’s openly gay, doesn’t question Nick’s feelings or identity or push him to label himself before he’s ready.
“Nick’s coming out journey, that is such a big part of Heartstopper,” Oseman says. “It’s figuring out your identity and figuring out who you are and what you want. And Nick’s journey is all about how people perceive him versus who he actually is, and he has to make peace with the fact that people don’t really see him for who he is.”
It’s just one component that makes Charlie and Nick’s relationship so lovely: It’s grounded in friendship, mutual support and understanding. “I wanted Charlie to just be supportive the whole time,” adds Oseman. “Like, there’s no drama at all around Nick not being able to figure out what his sexuality is. Charlie is very happy to just let him have the time and space to figure out who he is, and that’s really important.”
With Heartstopper, Oseman aims to highlight “a diverse range” of coming out and identity stories. Along with Tara and Darcy, who have their respective journeys and backstories, there’s Elle (Yasmin Finney), a trans girl and friend of Charlie’s who just recently transferred to Tara and Darcy’s all-girls’ school. But it’s not just important that Heartstopper includes many LGBTQ+ characters — it’s important that they all find friendship, comfort and unconditional support in each other.
“I think it’s really important to stress the importance of friendships in teen stories because, in reality, teens don’t usually meet the love of their life in their teens,” says Oseman. “And the most important relationships in the lives of teens are friendships. So even in a romance story, like Heartstopper, it’s so important to celebrate friendship as well.”
This kind of celebration of love, in all its forms, is a theme in many of Oseman’s works. Along with Solitaire and Heartstopper, they’ve published Radio Silence, I Was Born For This, and, most recently, Loveless, which follows an asexual, aromantic college student as she comes to terms with her own identity, finds community and learns that she doesn’t need romantic love to feel wholly fulfilled. And while Heartstopper is undeniably a rom-com, even Charlie’s romance with Nick is firmly rooted in friendship, and their other relationships are given weight and importance.
Seven years after Oseman first fell for Nick and Charlie, the spark is still there — and it’s Oseman’s dream that viewers in need of queer comfort, happiness and hope feel it, too. “For me, it’s just about celebrating queer joy,” Oseman says. “Above all, I hope that it just makes people smile and brightens their day — but I also hope that it inspires, particularly, young queer people to believe that they can find happiness and find romance and find friendship.”
