By Ryan Flaherty

We chatted with the creators, executive producers, and stars of ‘Eastsiders’ Kit Williamson and John Halbach about their show and their journey to get on Netflix.

You had this incredible journey from YouTube to Netflix, can you talk a little bit about that?

Kit: We started the show back in 2012, shot the first two episodes for $2,000 and a stick of gum to hold the whole thing together, and then put them on YouTube having no idea what journey we were back to go on. The show came to Netflix in the second season and it’s been amazing to be subtitled in more than 30 languages and distributed worldwide. [Netflix] has brought the show to a global audience and I’m so grateful.

John: Netflix doesn’t release numbers as far as how many people are watching it, bu every time a new season comes out we have twitter and Instagram and Facebook to give us an indication of how many people are watching it. It’s been absolutely incredible getting feedback in all of these different languages all around the world. 

What advice do you have for queer teenagers?

Kit: I don’t know how qualified I am to give advice to queer teenagers because I’m so inspire by queer teenagers today. It’s a whole new world in terms of people owning their identities and living their truth bravely and openly as teenagers. Growing up gay in Mississippi I didn’t know another openly gay person so to see the ways in which the world has changed in my lifetime is incredible to me, and I think that I’m grateful knowing that the future is in the hands of these amazing teenagers who are so much braver than I was when I was growing up. 

John: I don’t know what it’s like to be a queer teenager right now but I could say there’s definitely a time that I wasn’t so happy that I was gay and now I’m so happy and grateful and super lucky that I’m gay. If you’re not happy about it now, you could be someday. 

What do you want teenagers to take away from your show?

Kit: I think the show is dialect upon relationships and love and I tried to put as many different ideas of what a relationship is or should be into this show because I don’t believe that stories exist to tell you how to be or how to live your life. If this show has a thesis it’s that no two relationships are alike because no two people are alike. Just love and accept each other and don’t judge other people. 

The fourth and final season of ‘Eastsiders’ will premiere on Netflix later this year.