Where Are They Now: A Love Letter To The UK Skins

Granted, it wasn’t all that long ago that the UK series Skins was on the air, but given the fact that the series cast people who were roughly the same age as their characters —this wasn’t your American casting of a 27-year-old playing a 15-year-old— a lot of them had little prior acting experience and many of them drifted off to university or other pursuits (as outlined here) after their series ended.

Obviously, I hoped the cast members were still acting in one way or another but a part of me still wanted to know what they were actually doing —apart from stalking their Twitter pages— because I really, really loved the show/characters/pretty much everything about it.

And also because, yes, I am a fangirl.

Say what you want about the US Skins —really, say anything. I haven’t seen it so I have no opinion on the matter— but I have such a soft spot for the original UK series, in large part due to the love story between Emily and Naomi.

I would wager to say there’s never been anything like it on television — certainly not in America, anyway.

Depicting a teenage lesbian relationship that isn’t exploitative or some version of straight girls who are Katy Perry-kissing at a party because they’re soooo drunk, is pretty much unheard of.

Sure, we have some gay couples in primetime right now —Cam and Mitchell on Modern Family, for instance— but we’re sorely lacking for primetime TV shows that feature lesbian couples of any sort, particularly ones who aren’t fetishized in some way.

And the great thing about Skins is that they wrote this storyline in a way that felt very realistic to me —something happened between two girls one summer, they both pretend it didn’t happen, some people think one of them is gay and that she tried to “make” the other girl gay, they both still have feelings for each other but one or both of them is afraid they’re gay and even more so, they’re afraid of what everyone else will think about that.

The reason I think that’s so great is because even though movies and TV are often quick to tell you that being a teenage lesbian is super cool, they usually depict those relationships in a way that encourages Light Kissing Designed To Turn On Straight Dudes Who These “Lesbians” Will Probably Sleep With Later In The Season more than they focus on a realistic depiction or two people who are in love and just happen to be two women.

So wherever you are now Skins UK cast, thanks for being the exception. In oh so many ways.