Amber Glenn says Supernatural fan fiction first introduced her to queer media

'Nowadays, we’re so lucky that we have so much representation in media and in normal everyday life,' the Olympian said

Olympic figure skating gold medalist Amber Glenn says her earliest exposure to queer media came through online fandoms — particularly Supernatural fan fiction.

Asked about the first queer media that resonated with her, Glenn admitted it wasn’t something intentionally created as LGBTQ+ representation. “Honestly, it wasn’t like purposeful queer media. I remember seeing like fan fictions online,” she said.

She recalled that the long-running fantasy series Supernatural was a big part of that discovery while growing up. “Oh my God, there were so many. I used to watch Supernatural growing up, so I saw a lot of that,” Glenn said.

At the time, she noted, there wasn’t much visible queer representation in mainstream entertainment. “But growing up, there wasn’t too much, honestly. Nowadays, we’re so lucky that we have so much representation in media and in normal everyday life. But back then, there wasn’t that much.”

Now, Glenn says the response from LGBTQ+ fans after her gold medal win has been overwhelming — and sometimes hilarious. “My sister is volunteering to go through all of the girlies in my DMs that are flat out making application videos to be my new boo,” she joked.