I just got the Heartstopper official fan cards brought to my door!

The info in these cards is written by Wren/Lauren James who wrote the Ethics of Infatuation Dynamics mini comic, not Alice herself. I'll just list a few interesting things I'm seeing in them as I look through for the first time:

• Charlie's card says he's into astronomy, which stood out as news to me

• Darcy's card has no pronouns. Hmmmmmm......

• Ben's card has a quote from the show even though the cards are based on the comics canon (I do not remember where this quote could be in the comics or Solitaire, it's said to Nick)

• Harry is somehow included in the "Lads" card with Sai, Christian and Otis and I am NOT a fan of that decision

• Nellie & Henry's cards have a favourite treat listed. Nellie's is rawhide, Henry's is gravy bone

• Michael's card says he wants to be an ice-skater one day. This should specify speed skater in my opinion, I think people will think of figure skating or something if they don't know (Though why would anyone buy these cards if they don't know Michael)

• There is a card for Alice!

• Imogen is mentioned in the Higgs card, again breaking the comics canon

• SOLITARE SPOILER WARNING I GUESS: The Higgs card says Higgs never burns down in the Heartstopper series... I find this a bit suspect. I know it's not mentioned because it would be weird and out of nowhere but surely it still happens because Solitaire and Heartstopper are parts of the same canon...

• The Henry Maddox card says he's a famous queer author. I didn't think that was ever mentioned and I even went and checked the comic and nope, no mention of him being queer. So I guess that's new info, this is coming straight from the person who wrote him though

• There are info cards explaining different sexual orientation terms. These include movie/TV show recommendations

• The "Bisexual" card kind of insinuates bisexual and pansexual are synonyms. I know that's really complicated to explain but to me they are not the same thing

• The "transgender" card says "some characters are still questioning their gender identities in Heartstopper." Double-hmmmm.....

• The "transgender" card recommends The Star Beast episode of Doctor Who. The one Yasmin Finney is in.

• Isaac is mentioned in the "Asexual" card and the "Aromantic" card

• The sexuality cards with no characters to represent them just have drawings of hands holding flags

• There are also cards for bullying, allyship, heteronormativity, activism and solidarity

• The heteronormativity card includes cisnormativity but the word "cisgender" is not explained or defined anywhere on the cards despite the other terms being explained

• There is a card about Heartstopper in print & on screen

• The last card is for Lauren James (who goes by Wren now)

Overall thoughts:

When these cards first came out, I didn't really get what they were for but had to get them anyway in case there's some good info there and generally out of curiosity (and I obviously like to support Alice etc). After looking through them I see they seem to largely be for educational purposes on LGBT issues. The back of the box promises "behind-the-scenes details" and I wouldn't really call this that. Also it says "by Alice Oseman" all over the box "with additional text from Lauren James, story consultant on the Heartstopper Netflix show." This doesn't really give the right impression in my opinion, because mostly these cards just reuse Alice's drawings and all the text (other than the quotes) is by Wren/Lauren James. The Heartstopper yearbook already has very similar character info pages that are actually written by Alice so this is by no means essential reading or anything. I still don't entirely get what these are for but they are fun nonetheless! It is interesting to see a different type of product, this could have easily been a little book instead. But the cards are nice and sturdy and well printed, colorful and aesthetic.