Without fellow fans to geek over wlw ships with, I’ d feel much more lonely, scared, depressed and uncertain as a gay teenager.
The Berena phenomenon has allowed me to meet( online) a whole range of personalities and this has allowed me to interact on a level I’ ve never found before regarding finding female stars sexy and attractive. And I find this extremely liberating.
The Berena storyline has actually had a positive impact upon my life despite being a closet Bi. The exploration of emotion through fanfic and the Berena story on Holby has allowed me to be more openly affectionate to my husband as I identified with the feelings of love, desire and respect.
In‘ Life in the freezer’ I so engaged with them as a couple and cried my eyes out when Bernie left Serena. 10 mins later and a bunch of light bulbs switched on in my head. My life finally made sense to me. So many moments throughout my life I now understood. I am gay and 40 and without the Berena storyline I may never have known myself. It has totally changed my life.
I’ m a doctor who fell for her female friend and luckily she felt the same and we’ re now married. Weirdly I think the Berena story helped me process our early relationship almost a decade later.
I suffer with depression and whilst this is a deep-rooted issue, not going to be solved magically by queer media representation, Berena has honestly been a little ray of hope for me.
The whole Berena fan-base is incredible. I’ ve been through a hard time in my life and they’ ve all welcomed me with open arms, and been there for me.
Although there was much more conflict and angst in the storyline than I would ever wish for in an actual relationship, watching Bernie and Serena fall in love allowed me to imagine something for myself that I hadn’ t fully been able to before.