While a queer teen love story wasn’t in the original book, Netflix’s adaptation of Let It Snow has introduced this storyline in the Christmas teen romcom.
This, in turn, has the LGBTQ community talking about the movie on social media platforms.
Love like any other in Let It Snow
Netflix’s Let It Snow is based on the YA novel by John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson published in 2008.
But while it’s called a novel, it’s really more of an anthology of Christmas love stories or a fix-up novel (called Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances).
As such, Dorrie and Kerry’s storyline is just one among the stories in the bunch.
In the movie, Liv Hewson plays high school teenager Dorrie, who has a thing for Anna Akana’s popular girl, Kerry, after the two had spent a night hanging out with each other.
When Kerry shows up at the Waffle House on Christmas Eve where Dorrie is working, the latter has to figure out where she stands with Kerry.
Why representation matters in TV and movies
The importance of the new storyline comes just as GLAAD had recently released their 2019 media report citing an all-time high of LGBTQ representation on TV.
Hewson, in an interview with PRIDE, lauded having LGBTQ representation and a queer storyline in a holiday film: “It was nice to have our storyline treated the same way,” she said.
Akana agreed, saying that: “I like how normalized it was. It wasn’t just some big coming out story. It was just an intimate story between two people, and it felt integrated like all the other ensemble lines.”
During a red carpet event for the movie, Hewson said: “Coming out in high school is really hard, and some people aren’t able to come out in high school in the same way that others are.”
“Dorrie is out and proud and it’s a nonissue, which is lovely to see in a film like this, and also with Anna’s character, there’s more complexity there,” Hewson added.
“But that is treated with the same amount of empathy and respect as anyone else’s journey,” she said.
Authors of Let It Snow in agreement
The book’s authors– Green, Myracle, and Johnson– didn’t have any problems with the divergence in their work despite not having come up with the story line.
However, Green said they felt “grateful” the queer love story was included.
Green told BuzzFeed News that he hopes the movie will help other LGBTQ teenagers: “I hope that is changing for a lot of young people, that they do feel supported.”
Meanwhile, Johnson said: “Christmas movies are about the world we want to see, and this is the world you want to see, this is the model of what this is.”
“Having a heteronormative story all around would be abnormal. It would be weird. The version in the movie is much more satisfying,” Myracle said.
“We live in really terrible times. And it’s nice to be associated with something that feels good, feels positive, and feels warm and welcoming,” she added.
So, do you feel like you want to throw on a warm blanket and watching a queer romcom for the night? Check out the Netflix trailer below to help you decide.
