Zoe Stoller

Did you know that asexuality is a spectrum? 🖤🩶🤍💜 Every asexual person has a different relationship with s-xual attraction and desire. And all asexual experiences are wonderful, valid, and deserving of respect! 💬 Do you identify with the label asexual, or any identities on the asexual spectrum? 💬

What are your thoughts on the word queer? 🌈 Queer is often used as a broad label that can describe any non-straight and/or non-cisgender identity. Some people use the word queer as an umbrella term for any and all LGBTQ+ identities (including both sexuality and gender), and it also functions as independent label that people use to describe their experiences. The label queer has evolved a *lot* over time — from being used solely to mean “strange,” to being used as a derogatory term for the LGBTQ+ community, to being reclaimed by the community in the present day. Here’s a brief timeline of this evolution ⤵️ 🔹 In the 16th century, the word queer emerges in the English language, meaning “odd” or “strange.” 🔹 In the late 19th century, people start using “queer” as a derogatory term for the LGBTQ+ community, particularly feminine men who were presumed to be gay. 🔹 And in the late 20th century, people within the LGBTQ+ community start self-identifying as queer, and the word is eventually reclaimed into a positive meaning. 🔹 Today, many people connect and identify with the word queer, and its definition is so vast and open — which means it can mean a lot of different things to different people. But not everyone feels comfortable using the word queer — and that is completely valid as well! Everyone has their own relationship and history with words that have been reclaimed from a previously negative usage. And each person’s relationship — or lack thereof — with words like queer are understandable and worthy of respect. 💬 What are your thoughts on the word queer? 💬

Happy Non-Binary Day!!! 💛🤍💜🖤 International Non-Binary People’s Day occurrs every year on July 14. This day — as well as Non-Binary Awareness Week, the week encompassing July 14 — is an opportunity to learn more about non-binary genders and experiences, and celebrate the non-binary people around you 🌈 I am non-binary (more specifically, genderfluid), and I love existing in expansiveness and living my gender in the ways that feel best for me! 💬 Are you non-binary? What does this identity mean to you? 💬 💬 Who are your favorite non-binary people to follow on Instagram? 💬

🏳️‍⚧️ What are your pronouns? 🏳️‍🌈 My pronouns are they/she/he, and you can use any of these options interchangeably, or just use they/them pronouns if you want to stick to one set! I shared in a previous post that I’ve felt more aligned with saying that I use any pronouns, with a preference for they/them — and that is definitely still feeling very relevant! For now, I’m still saying they/she/he, mostly for conciseness, and also because instagram’s pronoun options don’t let you put “any pronouns” as an option (though TikTok does!!). But it’s okay because pronouns can be a fluid, changing thing (which makes particular sense for those who have a fluid sense of gender, such as myself!) so I’m going to continue to listen to myself and what feels right for my identity, and introduce myself as such. 💬 What are your pronouns (if you feel comfortable sharing)? How do you like people to use those pronouns? 💬 Also, remember that it’s totally okay to not know what your pronouns are or to be unsure of them in the moment! You can share that with people, or not share what your pronouns are, or whatever else feels right in the moment 🥰

Hulu Has Pride! 💚 🌈 #HuluPartner This Pride Month, @Hulu is my go-to platform to stream LGBTQ-themed TV shows and movies, as well as tune into live Pride Parades! One of my favorite shows on @Hulu with LGBTQ+ characters is Schitt’s Creek, which is about a wealthy family who loses everything and has to start over in a small town. If you know the iconic pansexual line “I like the wine, not the label,” that’s from this show! 🍷 One of the main characters, David, is pansexual, which means that he can be attracted to people of any gender, often with no preference for certain genders over others. He’s attracted to who the person is – the wine – rather than their gender – the label. Pansexuality isn’t as commonly represented in media as other LGBTQ+ identities – which themselves are not as commonly represented – so David’s pansexual character is so amazing and helpful for the pansexual community to feel seen affirmed. Representation like this can even help people understand themselves further, find love and peace in who they are, and feel inspired to share their identity with their communities. Schitt’s Creek has other great queer characters in addition to David, but I won’t spoil anything if you haven’t seen the show yet! You’ll have to check it out on @Hulu to find out more. And, in addition to Schitt’s Creek, there are so many other LGBTQ+ TV shows, movies, and Pride Parades on Hulu – truly, @Hulu Has Pride! 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ So be sure to stream all your favorite LGBTQ+ content on @Hulu, during Pride Month and beyond. 💬 What are you watching on @Hulu this Pride Month? 💬 #HuluHasPride

Did you know that gender can be fluid? 💬 I use the label genderfluid to describe my gender, which is a very literal description of my experience of having a gender that shifts and changes over time! I feel connected to different genders, labels, and forms of expression on different days — and I use this experience as an “excuse” to stay intentionally connected to myself and be aware of what gender(s) I do and don’t connect to on a given day! 🏳️‍⚧️ 💬Let me know in the poll (and comments!) below whether you knew that some people experience fluidity in their gender ⤵️

Happy Pride Month Day 2 🥳🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 Today I’m spending my day at Philadelphia’s Pride celebrations & volunteering with @phillyfamilypride ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 I got this awesome pin from one of the booths that says “ask me my pronouns” 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 It’s always great to encourage discussion about pronouns — not only to help people know how to refer to you, but also to help normalize pronoun-sharing and make spaces more safe and comfortable for others to share as well. My pronouns are they/she/he, but I’ve also realized lately that I don’t mind if people use any pronouns for me (and I might even start saying my pronouns are “any pronouns”). Usually I prefer people to either switch up the pronouns they use for me, or, if they want to just stick to one set, to use just they/them pronouns when referring to me. Everyone uses different pronouns (which might not always correspond to what you “assume” based on societal expectations) & those who use multiple pronouns might have different ways that they prefer people to use those various sets of pronouns. 👉🏻 When in doubt, you can always ask (respectfully) what pronouns someone uses and how exactly they like them to be used. 💬 What are your pronouns (if you feel comfortable sharing)? How do you like people to use those pronouns? 💬

It’s officially Pride Month!!!! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 I truly can’t believe it’s already June 1, 2024. This year has gone by so quickly for me!! But I am VERY excited to be in June, the queerest month of the year. And I just love summer in general! To celebrate the beginning of Pride Month, I decided to take a walk down memory lane and make a slideshow of pictures from some of my recent Pride Months, beginning in 2019 when I went to my first Pride event 🌈 And I will be attending Philly’s Pride celebrations this weekend, so I’m very excited to add some more photos to my collection! 🥰 Swipe through to check out some of my Pride looks throughout the years (including some very different haircuts & colors from what I have now!) And I hope, however you spend this month, that you have a Happy Pride 2024!!! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Explore your identity through creative writing and fantasy character creation! 📝🌈 Creativity can be such a powerful tool for exploring yourself and the ways you want to exist within the world. This is especially the case when thinking about more abstract or uncertain concepts, such as identity. Creativity can make these broad elements feel more concrete and tangible, which can help you examine them in a meaningful and productive way. To help guide you in self-exploration through creativity, I teamed up with the amazing @CosmicWriters once again to create this resource full of creative writing prompts! (Though you don’t have to *just* explore these using creative writing — feel free to respond to these prompts in whatever medium feels best for you!) For those who aren’t familiar, @CosmicWriters is a nonprofit that provides creative writing education to youth around the US and beyond. 📲 If you’re a high schooler interested in joining Cosmic Writers, check out their page to learn more! ➡️ And if you want to check out Cosmic Writers’ new activity book focused on monster-writing, check out 🔗 cosmicwriters.org/activity-books 🔗 We hope you enjoy these fantasy-themed creative writing prompts for exploring your identity! 💬 Have you ever used creativity to explore your identity? What did you make? What did you learn? 💬

Last week, I had the honor of speaking at @pennlgbt’s Lavender Graduation Ceremony to celebrate the LGBTQ+ graduates in Penn’s Class of 2024! 🎓🌈💜 I shared about my journey since graduating from Penn myself in 2018, and important lessons I’ve learned that I continue to carry with me in adulthood. I can’t fit the whole speech in this caption, but I wanted to share some of the overall takeaways that I ended my speech with! Whether you are graduating in the class of 2024, celebrating a milestone this year, or simply living your life, I hope that these messages can be helpful in your journey ⤵️ First of all, nothing is worth you struggling with your mental health. If you are ever in a situation where the environment is negatively impacting your mental health, I encourage you to explore whether there is change you can make, or somewhere else you can be.

Second, surround yourself with your community to support and ground you when the unknown feels scary (which it really can when you’re in the midst of it!). I’ve spent a lot of my post-grad life building up my community, and I have received so much love and grounding as a result.

And finally, invest time in being grounded in yourself — who you are, what you want, what you need — and know that these details might change over time. The more you are grounded in yourself, the easier it is to ride through uncertainty into wonderful things that you might never have expected or aimed for otherwise. Ultimately, wherever your life takes you after this, whether or not you have a plan for what you’ll be doing, and whether or not that plan changes, I hope you remember that you have complete agency, and you are always allowed to veer off-path to make your life feel right for *you*. 💬 What advice or messages would you share to those who are graduating from school or embarking on a new path? 💬

Happy Agender Pride Day!!!!! 🖤🩶🤍💚 May 19th marks this annual day where we celebrate the agender gender identity — which is an identity under the non-binary and transgender umbrellas that describes someone who is genderless, or has a neutral gender. There are many ways to experience this gender identity — everyone has a different relationship with this part of themselves, and different ways of existing as agender. For example… 🌈 some agender people do feel connected to having a gender in some way, while others feel completely separate from it 🌈 some agender people use additional gender labels, such as non-binary, transgender, or genderqueer, while others just use the label agender 🌈 agender people can use any pronouns they feel comfortable with, and dress and express themselves in whatever ways feel best for them Everyone has their own ways of feeling most comfortable and affirmed in their gender, and all ways of existing as agender are valid. Here are some of the *many* signs that agender might be the gender identity for you ⤵️ 🖤 you don’t connect with or understand the concept of gender 🩶 you feel like you don’t have a gender, or that your gender is neutral 🤍 if you try to fit gendered expectations, you feel like you’re performing 💚 your sense of self feels simply *human* more than anything else 🖤 you feel uncomfortable when someone ascribes gender to you 🩶 you simply connect to the label agender And remember — even if your experiences are different from these, you are still valid in your identity, and the only person who has a say in who you are is YOU 🥰 Let me know if you have any questions or if you want to learn more about the agender identity! 💬 What is your relationship with gender? Do you connect with any of these signs you might be agender? 💬

Springtime photodump! 🌷🌱 📸 Pictured here… ⤵️ 🌸 blooming flowers in NYC 📲 creator event with @socialcurrant, @annie_wu_22, @nikitadumptruck, and @lex_horwitz (and many others not pictured!) ⚾️ @phillies game with @amandasilberling and @izzydlopez 🏺pottery class ft. my “I listened to @wowiftrue before @isabeljkim got a 7 figure book deal” t-shirt (true story, great podcast) 🐶 and of course, Winnie!!! 🥰 💬 What are some activities you’ve been doing and/or emojis that would describe your recent weeks? 💬