I came out nearly ten years ago, on this blog, as bisexual. I’m so comfortable in my sexuality and my ability to love and be attracted to any person, regardless of their gender. I was scrolling through social media a few days ago and there was a post about the anniversary of one of my favorite movies growing up, A League of their Own, and I remembered my absolute obsession with the character of Kit and it was another lightbulb out of many lightbulbs that I’ve had over the years where I realize, oh…you had a crush on that character! I often will bring it up to my husband and we both have a laugh, always saying, “how did I not know that I was into girls too?!”
So I wanted to share a few of my fictional crushes from my childhood that really should have convinced me, should have been obvious to me that I was SO queer. This list doesn’t even begin to touch on everyone I had a crush on because, partly, I’m old and can’t remember and partly because I remember more and more as time goes on!
Let’s do this!
amy jo johnson as Kimberly aka the Pink Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
One of my earliest fictional crushes that I can remember is Tommy from Power Rangers – oh, was I obsessed! But as I grew older, I realized, wow, Sara, it wasn’t just Tommy that was getting your heart racing – it was also Kimberly as well! I join pretty much every 90s boy in that sentiment!
shawna waldron as IceBox aka Becky from Little Giants
This was one of my favorite movies growing up and I always wanted to be as badass as the Icebox, being the only girl on the team and being GOOD at the sport on top of that. Like…damn, she was so cool. Tomboy Sara wanted to be just like her. Adult Sara realizes that she was totally in love with her.
lucy lawless as Xena from Xena: Warrior Princess
I feel like this one speaks for itself…if you are a queer woman who was a young girl in the 90s, it goes without saying that you had very weird feelings in your body when you watched Xena. I’m pretty sure that Xena alone was my sexual awakening…
lori petty as Kit Keller from A League of their Own
While everyone was drooling all over Geena Davis or Madonna, I was totally in love with Kit Keller. I loved her name, I thought it was so fun and spunky and cute and I just totally loved her. I think it also just had to do with the fact that I loved baseball, girls playing baseball was so freaking cool (and it was based on true stories) AND I thought Lori Petty was so dang pretty, because I was also kind of in love with her in Free Willy…
claire danes as Juliet in Romeo & Juliet
When I first was starting to realize that I liked girls as more than just potential friends but as potentially MORE, Claire Danes was one of the first crushes that came to mind and I could not figure out why. She is in one of my absolute favorite movies – Stardust – but that wasn’t it. Then I realized…I wasn’t in love with a young Leo Dicaprio in Romeo and Juliet. I was totally in love with Claire Danes as Juliet. That costume! Ugh. Still in love!
christina ricci as Kat Harvey from Casper
If you didn’t have a crush on Christina Ricci in one of her many, many roles in the 90s, did you really actually exist? I loved her in Now and Then, The Addams Family, but I really loved her in Casper. I drooled along with all the other ten year olds when Devon Sawa appeared at the end, but I also absolutely drooled at Kat too, who was just too cool and pretty for me to handle.
carrie fisher as Princess Leia from Star Wars
I feel like this doesn’t even need to be said. I worshipped every moment that Leia was on screen and yes, I know the slave bikini is where everyone THINKS she’s at her best but they’re wrong. Leia is the best and the prettiest and just the source of my sexual awakening as Hoth Leia and Cloud City Leia. Carrie Fisher is absolutely the first person I think of when I think of how absolutely queer I am haha.
rachel leigh cook as Mary Anne from The Baby-Sitters Club Movie
Mary Anne was my favorite character in the books so it went without saying that she became my favorite character in the movie as well. However, I think it went a little more than that. All I wanted for years was to have a haircut like hers, and I just wanted to be with her. Now I realize…oh sweetie, oh sweetie, you were in LOVE.
Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen in Basically All of their Movies
Look, these movies were not great. From their movies when they were little like It Takes Two (a movie that I was obsessed with and literally spent entirely too much on to own on dvd) and all the movies they made when they were teenagers…I was just so in love with all of them. I watched them to the point of memorizing them. I was in LOVE with these two ladies so much and, as an adult, I’m totally in love with their sister so….the Olsen family churns out pretty ladies for me haha.
laura dern as Dr Ellie Sattler in Jurassic Park
Can we be honest and realize that Ellie was the only one making sense in this movie?! Okay, I love this movie, so freaking much, and I always thought Ellie was the best character and I still stand by that. Now, I realize, so many of the characters that I grew to love as an adult was directly influenced by my deep love for Ellie Sattler. And when I heard Laura Dern was coming back to play her, my heart grew five sizes bigger and there was a big OH. Oh yeah…that makes sense…
danielle harris as Hayley Wheaton from Wish Upon a Star
A lot of people probably just loved a totally adorable, younger Katherine Heigl. But I was absolutely in love with Danielle Harris as Hayley. She was adorable and I loved her. I didn’t realize it at the time but I definitely know it now. That crazy outfit that she wears in the GIF above did some things to ME, oh my god.
Kate Maberly as Mary Lennox from the 1993 The Secret Garden
Look, there are a lot of moments where Mary is a total brat and she takes a long time to get where she is a good character but when she does, she’s awesome and she was one of my favorite fictional characters growing up. I loved that book and I loved that movie and I had a HUGE crush on Mary, big time. I didn’t just watch that movie a million times because it was a good story – though, sure, that was part of it – I watched it because I totally loved Mary.
Liesel Matthews as Sarah from A Little Princess
I put Sarah from The Little Princess for this list in particular but when I stop and think about it, I think it was just pure Liesel Matthews. She was (and still is) so, so pretty. I adored her in this movie and I adored her as Harrison Ford’s daughter in Air Force One. It’s sad that she didn’t do much more but I totally get it. I thought she was absolutely wonderful in The Little Princess, so sweet and adventurous and kind and full of stories. Yeah, I was totally in love with her as a little girl.
cara delizia as Fiona from So Weird
I absolutely loved this show so much, way before I really realized how much that I was into all the weird witchy, supernatural, ghost shit. It was SUCH a great show and I loved watching it and getting scared as shit haha. But I also just adored the heck out of Fiona and thought she was so cool and I wanted to be her. So many of these characters that I wanted to be but I realize…oh girl, you wanted HER.
alana austin as Andrea from MotoCrossed
Okay, this is another one where I feel like it goes without saying that if you were a young girl in the 90s that ended up being queer in some way, shape or form, you definitely had some confusing feelings about Andrea in MotoCrossed because I liked her a lot, when she was dressing as a girl and when she was dressing as a boy. She’s, like, the ultimate bisexual crush!
Columbe Jacobson as Julie from D2: The Mighty Ducks
I always loved these movies growing up, especially since they created a real team from the movies and the team’s arena literally was within spitting distance of the house I lived in when I was a little kid. I grew up going to those games so I loved those movies. Sure, there were cute boys in the movies but let’s be real, guys, it was all about Julie aka The Cat, who literally SAVED the team, who made the winning save, who was a total badass.
Kate Bosworth, Sanoe Lake and Michelle Rodriguez as Anne Marie, Lena and Eden in Blue Crush
This one is a little later in life but it was brought up recently so I had to bring it. If we got into ones in my teen years, my young adult years, oh god, that list would go on FOREVER. I tried to focus on crushes I had as a young kid and this movie came out in 2002 when I was 14. But I had to bring this one in because I was talking with my husband and I was telling him how much I loved this movie and he laughed and I was like, I KNOW, this movie is SO bad, but I was obsessed and now I know WHY. I was in love with those surfer girls, totally obsessed.
GUYS, HOW DID IT TAKE ME UNTIL I WAS 24 TO REALIZE THAT I WAS THIS QUEER?
The world may never know…
If you’re queer, what are some of the crushes you had growing up that made you figure it out? Share in the comments!
