For young members of the queer community, even the smallest notion of representation or acceptance can play a crucial role in their development. Whether it is through the media or subtleties in everyday life, the portrayal of homosexual lifestyles can significantly impact an individual’s growth. In Terri Minsky’s Andi Mack, the family television series revolves around a thirteen year old girl who has just discovered a life-changing secret: her older sister is really her mother. As she journeys through her early teenage years with this newfound information, she is accompanied by her two friends, Buffy and Cyrus, who are, too, experiencing adolescent identity crises. While watching this show with my family when it first aired in 2017, I immediately thought it would turn out to be a typical Disney comedy-drama series with little impact on its fans. However, as the show progressed I realized that it has truly earned all its accolades for tackling modern-day problems. As the characters navigate through middle school, viewers explore a myriad of issues that affect younger teenagers. In particular, they address queerness, most significantly as the first series on Disney to feature a gay main character and later, its first queer romance. The development of this queerness was the result of a tumultuous journey, representing the underlying themes of our discussions of queer melancholia thus far. In conforming to the heteronormative values of society, the desire for happiness blinds the queer individuals, Cyrus and TJ, from achieving true bliss. The evasion of queer identity and counteractively the pursuit of heterosexuality drive the gay characters away from love and joy, and instead, steer them toward a false, fruitless premise of happiness. Their discomfort is finally dissipated when they embrace their true selves and release their tight grip on straightness. 

Set in present-day America, Andi Mack primarily focuses on the new chapter unfolding in Andi’s life as she reacts to the shocking revelation that her older sister is in fact her mother. Andi, a creative and artistically talented girl, adjusts to her new life with Bex, her real mother, and her real father Bowie, who she meets for the first time at thirteen. Closest by her side are her two best friends, Buffy and Cyrus, who also face their own struggles while attending middle school. Buffy, a strong confident girl, is hammered by sexism when she tries to pursue basketball. Cyrus, a kind selfless boy, ventures through the realization that he does not like girls. As the trio encounters other characters throughout the series, they become more and more entangled in romantic affairs. Andi begins to have a crush on the popular kid, Jonah, but it is later revealed that Cyrus also has affections for him. In the first episode of the second season, Cyrus comes out to Buffy. When he says that he feels weird, Buffy responds, “You’ve always been weird, but you are no different.” Although he is attracted to boys, he still participates in a heterosexual relationship with Iris to fill that void. Later, they meet TJ, the intimidating and competitive basketball captain. At first, he bullies all the students and discriminates against Buffy, the only girl on the boy’s basketball team, but he soon becomes a better person as his connection with Cyrus deepens. As their relationship escalates, Kira, Buffy’s enemy, manipulates TJ into doubting his straightness and internalizing homophobia. TJ begins to avoid Cyrus and spends more time with Kira in hopes to mirror the heteronormative lifestyles of society. However, this costs his happiness with Cyrus. By the end of the series, TJ finally drops Kira and Cyrus and TJ do end up together, sharing a sweet and monumental hand hold on screen. 

Despite the series’ heavy involvement with Andi in the show, Cyrus and TJ are at the core of queer melancholia and the deluding ideals of happiness. In The Promise of Happiness, Sara Ahmed claims, “Happiness is looked for where it is expected to be found, even when happiness is reported as missing… The demand for happiness is increasingly articulated as a demand to return to social ideals, as if what explains the crisis of happiness is not the failure of these ideals but our failure to follow them.” (Ahmed, 7). At the beginning of the series, Cyrus halfheartedly pursues a relationship with Iris. While the two share a lot in common, Cyrus does not genuinely feel comfortable with their affair because he likes boys, more specifically, Jonah. Despite this, he acts romantically in front of his friends, tags along on double dates and creates a cute couple name for them. He searches in the “typical” areas happiness is expected to be found: straightness. Eventually, their relationship intensifies and they kiss, to which Cyrus becomes awkward. Even then, he persists in his demand for happiness and attempts to return to social ideals. He believes that the failure to follow heteronormative values is parallel to the crisis of happiness. Later, Iris reassures him that it will get better, but finally Cyrus reveals to her that he does like her, but not in the way that she likes him. In this sense, Cyrus actually finds discomfort in attempts to impress his friends by having a straight relationship. Conversely, this burden is alleviated when he frees himself of heteronormative conformity.

Cyrus and TJ change each others’ lives as their relationship blossoms. TJ develops Cyrus’ confidence and lessens his timidity, while Cyrus helps TJ become a warmer and more approachable person. They spend a lot of time together, despite being so different, and engage in deep conversations on the swings or other fun activities, such as learning how to do a somersault. When costume day approaches, the two decide to do a matching costume: one goes as summer and the other as salt. However, Kira challenges TJ’s heterosexuality when she says, “So you’d rather do a costume with Cyrus than with me? Ok, have fun with that.” Consequently, TJ feels extremely insecure and chooses to do the costume with Kira last-minute. The look of anguish on both characters’ faces show that the coerced perception of happiness in heteronormativity is misleading. TJ continues in chasing a straight fantasy as he increasingly interacts with Kira, even playing on the swings together, an activity that Cyrus had once thought was exclusive to them. In the final episode, TJ realizes that Kira is manipulative and unkind when she makes fun of Cyrus’ dancing and then gives him an ultimatum. In an intimate scene on a bench outside, TJ and Cyrus confess their feelings for each other in an implicit manner. They embrace hands warmly and exhibit the idea that in a queer lense, the heteronormative approach to happiness is fruitless; instead, following your heart’s desires, even if it means straying from the norm, produces more authentic happiness.

I remember distinctly watching one of the first commercials for Andi Mack. My family and I often watch television together and our first impression was that we definitely needed to follow this drama about a girl finding out her sister is her mother, especially as the main character’s family was Asian. Although I initially began watching out of sheer enjoyment, I came to realize that the show is a real cultural gem. The list of topics the show has touched upon is endless, including anxiety and panic attacks, learning disabilities, and broken families. I found it amazing for a show catering to younger audiences to be so inclusive, powerful, and accepting. Although it was a Disney family show, it served as a catalyst for representation of all less-spoken of groups, breaking boundaries and ensuring that everyone feels welcomed. My family and I have devoted our Fridays to watching this revolutionary show together and I feel that it has served as a monumental platform to educate young viewers on diversity and reassure them that they are not alone. 

Andi Mack has taught young queer viewers that being gay does come with a lengthy journey of doubt, insecurity and self-realization. The path to queerness is a unique experience to everyone and can be full of struggle. The queer individual must realize that it is never the heteronormative values of society that evoke pleasure, but instead, their natural feelings of homosexuality that truly ignite that feeling of happiness. I would definitely recommend this show to younger audiences who are readily discovering or battling with their identity, whether it is in a queer stance, cultural stance, or other.