“Sometimes we can have empathy for people on screen that we wouldn’t normally have empathy for in real life,” Hawke said. “If I can hope for anything it’s that maybe some people fell in love with Robin and that helped them fall in love with girls who love girls and boys who love boys.”

It kind of makes sense that Robin’s sexuality wasn’t established until the fourth of fifth episode, as her story does start out as the New Girl who comes into Steve’s life to become his object of desire. But that doesn’t mean they needed to go back and change it—although I would’ve like to know a bit more about Robin’s life outside of school/Steve/gay. 

Robin is the first confirmed LGBTQ character in the series (Will’s sexuality has been implied but never confirmed). Her coming-out scene was one of our favorites of the season, and was also praised by GLAAD, calling it “another step forward for LGBTQ storytelling in the teen drama genre.”

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Stranger Things is currently playing on Netflix.


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