Elliot Page talks struggle of growing up queer: ‘You’re carrying these bricks of shame’
Elliot Page. (Image: Roy Rochlin/Getty)
Elliot Page has spoken about the shame and loneliness he felt growing up queer while promoting Second Nature, a new documentary he narrates and co-produces exploring same-sex relationships and gender fluidity across the animal kingdom.
Looking back on childhood, Page told PEOPLE: “You feel like something’s wrong with you,” describing how isolation can take hold early on. “For me, growing up as a queer kid, there was this feeling of being completely alone,” he added. “Of course, in retrospect, you weren’t – but it feels like that at the time. You feel excluded.”
Directed by filmmaker Drew Denny, Second Nature sets out to challenge the idea that queerness sits outside the natural world.
Page said the film pushes back on how “natural” is often framed, arguing: “This idea that nature is organised around a cis-heteronormative system is completely false,” pointing to the breadth of same-sex pairings and gender diversity among animals.
Page also connected shame to what people are taught, and what gets left out.
“You’re carrying these bricks of shame,” he said, linking that burden to censorship and erasure in culture, science and education.
He said the prevalence of same-sex behaviour and gender diversity across species is routinely omitted from mainstream biology lessons.
What Second Nature aims to show
Page said the documentary was designed to be accessible as well as informative.
“It’s entertaining, it’s funny, it’s beautifully made,” he said. “But it’s also incredibly valuable information – no matter who you are or how you identify.”
Elliot Page’s wider work
Page is best known for Juno and Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy.
He came out as transgender in 2020 and later published the memoir Pageboy (2023), and has been a prominent advocate for trans rights and LGBTQ+ visibility.
His recent producing work has included a lesbian softball series.
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