brave new girl

Girl Meets World Star Rowan Blanchard Came Out As Queer and Went to Bat for Her Disney Character, Too

Girl Meets World, made for devoted fans of Cory and Topanga, plus the modern preteen demographic, has been a Disney Channel series since the summer of 2014. But the show’s main star, Rowan Blanchard, revealed something new: She is queer, reported Glamour. And she’d so be onboard if  her character turned out to be, too.

Blanchard, 14, took to her Twitter account to tell fans that she doesn’t want her sexuality to be labeled as “straight, gay or whateva”; she prefers the fluid term queer. When people asked why she refused to choose a label (because everyone loves a good binary, ugh), she said she is “open to liking any gender in the future.”

The Disney Channel star, who plays Cory and Topanga’s pre-teen daughter, Riley, in the series, says she has only dated boys in the past but doesn’t want to be limited to dating a specific gender when she grows up. The young actress follows several celebrities, including Miley Cyrus and Kristen Stewart, who have helped make sexual fluidity visible.

Blanchard added her own twist by correcting her grammar in her coming-out tweet, in which she forgot to put a comma between “straight” and “gay.” Socially conscious and grammatically conscientious — the perfect combo.

This isn’t the first time Blanchard has poignantly spoken out about social issues. Last summer, Blanchard posted an essay she’d written on intersectionality and feminism to her Tumblr page, XoXo Rowan. At just 13, she broke down the issues as well as any well-read women-and-gender studies major could. Since then, she’s published a piece in Rookie about choosing not to self-apologize.

And when it comes to Riley? Blanchard told her followers she would be thrilled if her, or any other character came out as queer on the show. If I — and any other ‘90s kids — know the original Matthews clan, they would be so supportive and all for it.

Rowan Blanchard Came Out As Queer