Growing Up in a Straight World

Savannah Davis is an eighteen year old girl who has been my best friend since seventh

grade. She’s going to Salt Lake City Community College for her generals and her favorite thing

to do is play guitar. I’ve known Savannah for 5 years and during those five years we have both

changed so much. Savannah was one of the people who helped me with my coming out and I

helped her discover who she is. I wanted to interview Savannah because I saw her bloom into her

identity and as I watched her, it helped me become who I am. It helped me come out to the

people around me.

When Savannah and I were about fourteen years old we became really good friends.

Since middle school, I mainly focused on myself and how I was growing up so I asked Savannah

a couple questions about how she grew up. I wanted to get an understanding of what Savannah

thought during this time. But first I wanted to ask one of her friends Liberdee Ostler some
questions about Savannah. I first asked, “What do you think about Savannah?” “I think she’s

really cool. I will give her a 9.5, I had to take away the .5 because she's too gay sometimes haha!

She’s my best friend and like a sister.” I secondly asked Libderedee “What’s Savannah's

personality like?” “She is very funny” She responded, “ she cares a lot about everything in her

life but she maintains a good balance for the difference between caring to the point it becomes

detrimental to herself, yet still helping when she can. She’s a little sassy but you have to know

her well to see it! Savannah is the most inspiring caring person I know. She is an SBO for our

school and is a poet as well as an artist. After she came out nothing changed, Savannah coming

out honestly changed nothing for me, I always guessed she was queer since she was a very strong

ally. However I did see a big change with Savannah and her self expression.” Liberdee said. “I

had a deep sense of care for the community, but I definitely felt imposter syndrome and like I

wasn’t queer enough.” Savannah replied after I asked her what she thought about herself when

she was discovering her identity.

Savannah had a lot of queer friends as Liberdee stated, which helped her discovery but

something that didn’t help was the lack of representation she never saw. About 1 in 4 people

identify as queer and about 26% of high school students identify as queer according to the CDC’s

YRBSS. The percentage went from 11% in 2015 to 26% in 2021, the CDC surveyed 17,508

students in 152 schools across the country. About 1 in 6 kids are questioning, and without

representation this is even harder. “I never saw any representation from shows or in the media

but my first exposure was queer music, artists like Hayley Kiyoko and Troye Sivan.”. Savannah

stated. This makes it so much harder for kids who are questioning, they need to see

representation so they can get help in discovering who they are. When there is little
representation children can experience anxiety or depression according to The Child Mind

Institute. “During my freshman year I was in a very bad place mentally. I think my identity had

something to do with it but I’m not entirely sure. I was very anxious to come out to my friends

and family even though I knew they’d be supportive.” Savannah said. When a child is

discovering their identity it’s hard for them to come to people for help. Something that can

happen when these people don’t talk about their feelings is impostor syndrome which is

something Savannah experienced severely, “I felt like me considering my queerness was me

taking something away from the community, trying to take up space somewhere I didn’t belong.

Which made it even harder for me to talk to people because I was afraid of them saying I wasn't

gay enough and it would’ve validated my imposter syndrome.” About 70% of people experience

impostor syndrome and about half of kids today experience it as well, according to the American

Physiological Association.

When people get help and representation, they are able to become who they really are

and who they want to be. “She’s grown so much, I was with her as she navigated her journey

through seeking validation versus love. Seeing her acknowledge and grow as she becomes

comfortable and confident in herself was definitely a defining moment in her growth as a

lesbian.” Liberdee stated. I also wanted to ask Savannah what she thought about herself. She

stated, “I’m happy and content! I love being a lesbian! I love that I get to be public with my

girlfriend and marry her and start a family. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with her. This

would have never been possible if I didn't embrace my queerness.”

 As I ended my interview with Savannah I wanted to ask her two final questions, “What

change would you want to see within the community and how the community is treated?” She

replied with an answer that truly resonates with the Queer community at this time. She states,

“More trans solidarity and acceptance. Trans people are really being targeted in the political

climate right now and are being persecuted the way gay people were 20-30 years ago. We’re all a

part of the community and excluding them hurts us as a whole.” Lastly, I go on to ask her, “If

you could tell people to do one thing to help our community what would it be?” Her response

touched my heart. “We are human. Our existence is not something controversial, and it doesn’t

need to be. Basic respect and human rights is not asking for special treatment, it’s asking to be

seen as human. Please respect us and treat us how you would want to be treated!”

I want to say a big thank you to Savannah Davis and Libderedee Ostler for letting me

interview them and showing their experiences as queer individuals. Everyone deserves to live a

life they enjoy and everyone deserves to be respected. As Savannah whole heartedly said, we are

human, treat us how you want to be treated.

I fixed some spelling mistakes as well as indenting all of my paragraphs, I think I paragraphed it
correctly. I added a picture of Savannah as well as changing the first paragraph to make it more
understandable? I feel as though it was too blunt and didn’t have enough character to it if that
makes sense.