Sumith Prasad
While focusing on Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson’s captivating relationship, Netflix’s romantic series ‘Heartstopper’ also dives deep into the lives of their friends, including Elle Argent. Elle gets transferred to Higgs Girls School from Truham Grammar after coming out as transgender. Although the change initially affects her, she soon adapts to life at Higgs with the support of Tara and Darcy. In the second season, Elle expresses her feelings toward Tao Xu, Charlie’s best friend. As the series explores Elle’s life as a trans person, the viewers must be wondering whether Yasmin Finney, who plays the character, is a transwoman. Let us provide the answer!
Elle’s Yasmin Finney Identify as a Transwoman
Yes, Yasmin Finney is a transwoman. Since Finney was assigned male at birth, the artist had a challenging childhood. “I have always been feminine, whether I liked it or not. It’s never been like, ‘Oh my god, I’m trans now,’” Finney told Elle UK. While attending primary school, she spent her time prominently among girls. “I didn’t come out as trans at that point, but obviously I was hanging around with the girls. It’s always been a natural sort of aura,” she added about her childhood.
Finney and her character Elle had different experiences while attending school. “I admire Elle so much. I was bullied for being queer at my first high school. At the time I didn’t know I was trans, but for Elle to know that she is and to move schools because of that is bravery on another level,” the actress told Elle. During Finney’s childhood, her grandmother, who bought her a female ballet dancer’s costume called “tutu,” was the only person who acknowledged her true self. “She was the only one who saw me for me. I’d dance around in it at her house but then rush to take it off when my mum came to get me,” Finney added to Elle UK.
Finney’s relationship with her mother eventually changed and now the latter is fully accepting and supportive of her daughter. The actress overcame her challenges through self-expression. “When I was super-young in high school and getting bullied, I had this willpower to go home and forget about it all by documenting my experience and building this community of people that had similar experiences as me,” she said in the same Elle UK interview.
Finney eventually discovered TikTok, a platform she used to share her experiences as a Black trans individual. “Tiktok, Tiktok, Tiktok. I didn’t realize the impact it would quite have. I made content about being bullied as a trans woman and people responded to me with things like ‘me too.’ And that was the start of Yasmin Finney,” she told Shon Faye at a GQ event. “I had that platform and I could post what I wanted, and people loved how outrageous it was. TikTok definitely matured me. There was a lot of hate online, and there still is, but that comes with everything you do, people always have an opinion,” Finney added about rising above the transphobia she had to face.
Finney considers ‘Heartstopper’ as a show that explores the trans experience differently. “It’s so beautiful to see a trans story on television that’s normalized, rather than see a narrative focussed on gender dysphoria, bullying, or the dark parts that come with being a trans person,” she added to Elle.
Read More: Is Heartstopper’s Kit Connor Bisexual? Is Joe Locke Gay in Real Life?
