Rebecca Black just came out as queer in early April, casually revealing her sexuality on an episode of the podcast “Dating Straight.” Black became famous at the age of 13 for the viral hit “Friday.” She’s now 22 years old.
In a new interview with Pride, Black discussed her decision to come out and how her experiences as a young viral star helped prepare her for it.
“My sexuality and the choice to come out was something I thought about for, obviously, a long time, as any queer person does,” Black told the outlet. “I had made a choice when I had decided not to necessarily come out over the past few months, but to just stop really being so afraid of answering the question. It just happened naturally.”
She says her sexuality was “a question that I always asked myself” growing up. But despite always wondering, she “never gave myself the option, really.”
“And to be honest, I was so enamored by specific people growing up, especially through my teens, that I didn’t really come into myself in my own romantic and sexual life until I was, not that this isn’t late, really, but it wasn’t until I was 18 or 19,” Black said. “20 was when I started really understanding that there was something more that I was attracted to and I was lucky to be surrounded by a group of people that made it really, really easy to express.”
Like many teenagers, Black felt uncomfortable with herself for a long time. Becoming famous for “Friday” made things even harder; she was forced to deal with a barrage of hatred and death threats.
But in the end, confronting those feelings led to a greater understanding of herself — and her sexuality.
“I always felt like I was a bit of an outcast just because of my relationship with my body. And obviously, this experience I had with ‘Friday’ kind of inhibited myself on all fronts,” Black explained. “As I started to process all of that, dating became much easier and understanding my sexuality also became much easier. I was in a community that was so accepting.”
Now that Black has come out as queer, she’s preparing for another type of coming out. The singer has been releasing new music for the past year, and she’s debating when to release her debut album.
“Just like there’s not a right time to really come out, I don’t think there will ever be a time where I’ll be like yep, this is perfect. I hope. I hope so. But I’m just constantly learning.”
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