CoP3// Artists, Rebecca Sugar

''By excluding LGBT content from children’s media, a clear statement is being made that this is something that should be ignored.'' - Rebecca Sugar 

Rebecca sugar at the 2016 Comic-Con publicly stated that she identifies as a bisexual woman and despite the fact I didn't attend the convention, I near instantly heard about her 'coming out' from friends, the internet and all over social media. I also identify as a bisexual woman and seeing a current animator and creator of her own show being so public about herself and her characters gave me this sense of security and identity. Feeling myself represented as a queer female animator, by the first female animation series creator on cartoon network only inspired me MORE to push for diversity and representation within cartoon and my own works.

I also watched an interview like presentation given by Rebecca at the School Of Visual Arts online, in which she addresses the work process of Steven Universe, her working environment and how each episode is developed, as well as other pieces of her work like her original comics. At the begining of the presentation Rebecca also lightly touches on LGBT representation directed at kids, mentioning that LGBT themes are as much themes for children as they are adults; a child growing without representation because the idea that talking about queer culture to a child seem very inappropriate is very outdated after all, or at least it is in my own opinion and many others. She also presented a few pages of a comic she developed in 2010 titled ' Margo In Bed '. This comic reflected her own experience with manipulation within a relationship and speaks lightly about how it helped her get over the whole event, by working on the comic; despite never finishing the comic past sketches.

With the popularity of Steven Universe hitting not only the animation culture by storm, but TV ratings too; the show is set to run for it's 5 season. I'm so glad that children can grow up watching a show like this, that questions gender-norms and represents such a wide variety of not only physical identities but sexuality identities and gender identities.