Lindsay is the Founder and CEO of Queer Kid Studios, a multimedia production company based in Portland, Maine, with queer-focused, intersectional all-ages media. She is an LGBTQ+ activist and digital creator, a true pioneer in queer and children’s media. Lindsay is also a Creative Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm, a TED Resident and was named a Rising Star by GLAAD, a Queero by them.us were a Webby Honoree. She secured grants from the Made in NYC Women’s Media Fund, the Awesome Project and VidCon’s Emerging Creator program for her breakthrough in queer media.
Lindsay Amer was born and bred in New York City and hailed from a Jewish family. In a blog titled What, Should We Do, Amer revealed her struggle growing up as a queer kid, “I definitely struggled growing up queer. My family is and always has been very accepting and liberal, but being gay or queer wasn’t really something I thought I could be. It was OK for other people to be gay, but it took me a really long time to see that it was something that I could be, too. I had a particularly hard time with it in high school and ended up coming out later in college.”
Lindsay developed a keen interest in theatre at Friends Seminary in Middle School, which continued throughout Upper School. The inclusive spirit which infuses Lindsay’s work was nurtured at Friends Seminary. “Friends was instrumental to me in making me believe that I had a voice…I think Friends was really important in my early years of moving toward becoming an activist.”
She then went on to Northwestern to study theatre, focusing on young audiences’ performance and gender studies. During this time, they pooled all of their interests together, which, to a stroke of her sheer good luck, ended up being queer storytelling for children. Her passion for the cause began to bloom from here, and she continued her education.
Lindsay achieved her MA in Theater and Performance from Queen Mary University in London. While studying abroad, she transformed her feelings of homesickness into a creative catalyst and watched her works turn into inspirational projects. “I watched a lot of queer YouTubers and found that this was a great platform.”
During her journey to bringing queer stories to the mainstream theatre, Lindsay encountered several obstacles; that’s when she turned to YouTube as the channel offered a space that she could define for herself. Soon after that, Queer Kid Stuff was launched.
Lindsay started Queer Kid Stuff because she saw a gaping hole in children’s media and media in general around queerness. The Law of Marriage equality had just been passed, and the world was still figuring out how queer people fit into the larger culture.
In her blog interview, Amer discloses how she was drawn to younger audiences and how educating the masses became her life’s mission, “I’ve been working in theatre for young audiences since I was in undergrad. I have my degree in theatre and gender studies, and I wrote my thesis on queer storytelling in theatre for young people. Then I got my master’s in theatre and performance studies, where I continued refining that speciality. I used to work at a preschool, and now I teach music to young kids. So I’ve spent the better part of the last six-ish years working at the intersection of media-slash-storytelling, early childhood development, and gender studies.”
The channel received praise from various noteworthy places including, The Huffington Post that called Queer Kid Stuff a “groundbreaking YouTube educational resource.”Teen Vogue praised their episode on consent during the height of #MeToo that “shows exactly why there’s no excuse not to grasp consent. Even toddlers can understand it.” Even @shondarhimes took to Twitter to express her praise for Lindsay, she’s “so here for this!”
This popular and groundbreaking web series has served as a resource for people of all ages and helped define a space that didn’t exist a few years ago. “The biggest secret is it’s not for kids; it’s for everybody. People use it to tell their grandparents about their gender identity. I feel I have filled that gap to a certain extent in the grassroots space,” says Lindsay
However, every yin has yang, and she received much criticism for creating a platform to educate people. Through the years, she has learnt to pay no heed to their baseless concerns; Lindsay says, “At this point, honestly, I try to ignore them. I have a great therapist, and taking care of my mental health is a top priority. And staying connected with my community is really helpful; it reminds me that I’m not alone in dealing with this, whether it’s other online creators or my friends and family. I definitely get scared; we’re living in a really scary time. But we can’t let that stop us.”
In the future, Lindsay hopes to bring about a world where conversations around gender identity are more nuanced and normalized. She will continue to work to bring about media that represents a multiplicity of perspectives. “I’m working on moving into television and how to do queer storytelling and media for all ages…I have big, bold dreams.”
