PRESS RELEASE
‘We Are Pride’ YouTube channel has today announced “My First Time,” a brand new Australian original series made for queer people and their allies by members of the community. Premiering globally from Saturday, 17 February, the 10-episode series takes a heartfelt and unfiltered look at the unforgettable ‘first’ experiences of Australia’s LGBTQIA+ community.
From coming out, crushes, gender identity, love and heartbreak and allyship to family, death, suicide and sex, the series will explore the transformative nature of queer first experiences. Logie nominated Pasifika New Zealander, Kween Kong, comedian, writer and content creator Aurelia St Clair and internationally acclaimed playwright Wesley Enoch AM are among the ten talent to share their truly personal journeys. Additional LGBTQIA+ community members joining for season one:
- Katherine Wolfgramme, prominent trans elder and advocate, who created legal precedence in Fiji, her country of birth as the first transgender woman to legally obtain a female name;
- DQ, “78er” and a lesbian and feminist activist since the mid-1970s, who wrote ‘Shift’ what is said to be the first lesbian play in Australia;
- Seren Bakir, non-binary Turkish-Australian model and TikTok creator celebrated for their honest dialogues on queerness and autism;
- Rosie Delaney, Australia’s premier transgender lesbian comedian;
- Dyan Tai, Self-described as the Gaysian Empress of Sydney, he/they is an unapologetically queer Chinese-Australian electronic musician and performance artist;
- Steven Spencer, an award-winning bisexual advocate, writer, and researcher for the bi+community and for people living with HIV, and he is a proud ambassador for the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation;
- Adrian Mouhajer, queer non-binary Lebanese-Australian writer and editor from Western Sydney whose work centres on their experiences, spirituality, desire, love, grief, and understanding.
Created in VA Media’s Sydney studio, “My First Time” will roll-out across 10 x 20-minute uniquely themed episodes on YouTube, followed by Instagram and TikTok.
“My First Time” marks the first Australian-made original series for VA Media’s ‘We Are Pride’ YouTube channel, which boasts over 400,000 subscribers and 45 million views across its catalogue of LGBTQIA+ documentary, reality, drama and movie content.
Hannah Barnes Executive Producer of My First Time (Director of Unscripted and Original Production), said:
“We can’t wait to share this original and important new LGBTQIA+ Australian series with a global audience.
“The format, which was developed in-house, delves into many ‘firsts’ including the importance of allyship, the range of coming out experiences, identity, self discovery.”
“The human experience is deep and complicated. In between moments of elation and relatability, our audience may also feel uncomfortable, angry and devastated at times. These raw and honest conversations were essential for us to address.”
Speaking on the series’ aim to showcase a spectrum of queer experiences on screen for the first time, producer Carolyn Cage (known for “Queerstralia,” “Strong Women”) explains:
“Creating this series has been a deeply personal journey for me, inspired by my own experiences and the realisation of what I wished I had seen while growing up.”
‘It’s not just a series; it’s an invitation to explore and understand the multitude of ‘firsts’ that shape our lives, a place for anyone who has ever felt alone or different during these experiences, and serves as a reminder that LGBTQIA+ stories are worth sharing.”
“Most of all, it’s a celebration of our shared triumphs and tribulations, an ode to the power of storytelling, and a heartfelt invitation for everyone, regardless of identity, to join us on this extraordinary journey.”
“My First Time” premieres globally on ‘‘We Are Pride’ YouTube channel with its first episode on Saturday, 17 February, with new episodes premiering every Saturday until 20 April.
