The It Gets Better Project started as a viral video movement, with more than 70,000 people sharing their stories in support of LGBTQ+ youth. Now, those videos are back with a fresh look and feel, and kicking things off is 23-year-old artist, director, and author Chella Man.
“Being deaf made me really wanna figure out… how can I express myself without sound,” Chella Man — who identifies as “curious, stubborn, Deaf, transmasculine, genderqueer, Jewish, and Chinese” — explains in his video. “Going to school, so many hours… you just sit there with a pencil and paper for hours on end. And sometimes schooling wasn’t accessible to me, I couldn’t understand the teacher, I couldn’t hear the teacher, and I didn’t know sign language fluently. But I had a piece of paper and a pencil. That’s the place I felt most free.”
Watch It Gets Better: Chella Man here and check back for more It Gets Better videos coming soon.