{"id":30384,"date":"2020-06-24T14:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/?p=30384"},"modified":"2020-06-24T16:02:41","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T14:02:41","slug":"maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Maz – “Dear Younger Queer Self” Contest Finalist Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Younger Queer Self,<\/span><\/p>\n

By the time you hit 30, you still won\u2019t have everything figured out, but that\u2019s OK.<\/span><\/p>\n

It turns out nobody else has it figured out either.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

By the time you\u2019re 30, you\u2019re a well seasoned adult who is still none the wiser. Sexuality still isn\u2019t black and white and, unfortunately, labels still aren\u2019t just for jam jars.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll clarify to acquaintances that you\u2019re actually bisexual, and yes, you are married to a man, but hell no, that doesn\u2019t make you straight.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the time you\u2019re 30, your skin is thickened by the term \u2018fake gay\u2019, you laugh excruciatingly at \u2018it\u2019s just a phase\u2019 and you zone out when people ask \u2018does your husband mind that you\u2019re bi?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

But, by the time you turn 30, you realise that your real friends don\u2019t bat an eyelid when you tell them you\u2019re queer.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the time you\u2019re 30, pop culture offers so many more role models for you to look up to, with fictional characters who convey the reality you need.<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019ll show you all the different iterations of love that are possible so you don\u2019t have to make it up in your head anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the time you\u2019re 30, you\u2019ll come across so many unique love stories, but all will show you that love is just the same. In this, you will find profound comfort in understanding that the common experience of falling in love binds everyone together.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the time you\u2019re 30, you\u2019ve accepted your own skin and feel comfortable in it. You\u2019ll find safety and empowerment in your friendships and you won\u2019t wear heels just because you feel like you should.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wish that this knowledge could’ve made you braver than you were, and more accepting of yourself so you didn’t spend most of your life imagining it rather than living it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wish you could’ve known how little it mattered to your parents when you finally came out to them at 28.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wish you could’ve known how much the world would change – and is still changing\u00a0 – so that hope and opportunity for someone who doesn\u2019t fit the mold isn\u2019t just a fantasy.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wish I could tell you that you are not the only one. Your feelings and instincts are valid. You will find love and acceptance.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wish you could’ve known all this when you were 5 and first knew that you were different.<\/span><\/p>\n

But hey, no one at 30 has it all figured out, and that’s OK.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Younger Queer Self, By the time you hit 30, you still won\u2019t have everything figured out, but that\u2019s OK. It turns out nobody else has it figured out either. By the time you\u2019re 30, you\u2019re a well seasoned adult who is still none the wiser. Sexuality still isn\u2019t black and white and, unfortunately, labels still aren\u2019t just for jam jars. You\u2019ll clarify to acquaintances that you\u2019re actually bisexual, and yes, you are married to a man, but hell no, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":30408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[921],"tags":[71],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-30384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lelo-newswire","tag-contest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMaz - "Dear Younger Queer Self" Contest Finalist Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maz - "Dear Younger Queer Self" Contest Finalist Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Younger Queer Self, By the time you hit 30, you still won\u2019t have everything figured out, but that\u2019s OK. It turns out nobody else has it figured out either. By the time you\u2019re 30, you\u2019re a well seasoned adult who is still none the wiser. Sexuality still isn\u2019t black and white and, unfortunately, labels still aren\u2019t just for jam jars. You\u2019ll clarify to acquaintances that you\u2019re actually bisexual, and yes, you are married to a man, but hell no, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Volont\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LELO.Official\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-24T12:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-24T14:02:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pride2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Maz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Lelo_Official\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Lelo_Official\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Maz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/\",\"name\":\"Maz - \\\"Dear Younger Queer Self\\\" Contest Finalist Story\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pride2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-24T12:00:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-24T14:02:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/daaf873077da7e9dad4dd6b6e61c4a7b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pride2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pride2.jpg\",\"width\":660,\"height\":330},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Volonte\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sex Toys\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/lelo-reviews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"LELO NEWS\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/lelo-reviews\/lelo-newswire\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Maz – “Dear Younger Queer Self” Contest Finalist Story\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Volont\u00e9\",\"description\":\"A Pleasure Project by LELO\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/daaf873077da7e9dad4dd6b6e61c4a7b\",\"name\":\"Maz\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b617874ea72370051c9aba056ee4be0d\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f828db72f306abea0ee5cd8c97ea8fba?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f828db72f306abea0ee5cd8c97ea8fba?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Maz\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/author\/maz\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Maz - \"Dear Younger Queer Self\" Contest Finalist Story","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Maz - \"Dear Younger Queer Self\" Contest Finalist Story","og_description":"Dear Younger Queer Self, By the time you hit 30, you still won\u2019t have everything figured out, but that\u2019s OK. It turns out nobody else has it figured out either. By the time you\u2019re 30, you\u2019re a well seasoned adult who is still none the wiser. Sexuality still isn\u2019t black and white and, unfortunately, labels still aren\u2019t just for jam jars. You\u2019ll clarify to acquaintances that you\u2019re actually bisexual, and yes, you are married to a man, but hell no, […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/","og_site_name":"Volont\u00e9","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LELO.Official\/","article_published_time":"2020-06-24T12:00:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-06-24T14:02:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":660,"height":330,"url":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pride2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Maz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Lelo_Official","twitter_site":"@Lelo_Official","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Maz","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/","url":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/","name":"Maz - \"Dear Younger Queer Self\" Contest Finalist Story","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pride2.jpg","datePublished":"2020-06-24T12:00:06+00:00","dateModified":"2020-06-24T14:02:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/daaf873077da7e9dad4dd6b6e61c4a7b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pride2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pride2.jpg","width":660,"height":330},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/maz-dear-younger-queer-self-contest-finalist-story\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Volonte","item":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sex Toys","item":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/lelo-reviews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"LELO NEWS","item":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/lelo-reviews\/lelo-newswire\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Maz – “Dear Younger Queer Self” Contest Finalist Story"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/","name":"Volont\u00e9","description":"A Pleasure Project by LELO","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/daaf873077da7e9dad4dd6b6e61c4a7b","name":"Maz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b617874ea72370051c9aba056ee4be0d","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f828db72f306abea0ee5cd8c97ea8fba?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f828db72f306abea0ee5cd8c97ea8fba?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"Maz"},"url":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/author\/maz\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30384"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30418,"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30384\/revisions\/30418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30384"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=30384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}