Busy Philipps, like most parents, wants happy, healthy, children. So when her daughter Birdie, 15, came out and decided to use they/them pronouns (though has since switched back to she/her), Philipps didn’t miss a beat.
“I love and trust my child,” the 44-year-old “Girls 5Eva” actress and late night talk show host said on a recent Zoom call ahead of Pride Month. “And so when my child tells me a thing about themselves, how wonderful that I have information that I didn’t have before, and what other job do I have but to support that?”
Research shows a parent’s support is critical for teens in these situations. More than one-third of LGBTQ+ young people who hoped for mental health care but ultimately never got it didn’t want to ask for their parent or caregiver’s permission, according to The Trevor Project’s 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People.
But Philipps has taken her daughter’s lead when it comes to the LGBTQ+ experience: “If your child is telling you that they identify in a way, how can you not support them?”
More from Busy Philipps:Actress talks ADHD diagnosis, being labeled as ‘ditzy’ as a teen: ‘I’m actually not at all’
‘Your kids are figuring out who they are’
Philipps suggests parents center their child’s experience, not their own, when it comes to discovering where they may fit on the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
Parents should also practice self-awareness. Just because you consider yourself a “liberal person,” for example, doesn’t make you immune to…
