"The Loud House" is a Nickelodeon cartoon featuring the shenanigans of ten sisters and one brother.
In the episode "L is for Love," the Loud children find a letter from a secret admire. "L. Loud" could be any of them, and thus begins a series of each character sending signals to their crushes. Flirting with a boy counter part for each Loud girl ensues, with a girl for Lincoln Loud, and a teddy bear for the baby's "crush."
Careful attention is placed on Luna Loud who says Sam is out of her league and is too shy to send a signal or give a token. Sam is undistinguished between members of a friend group though assumed to be the boy (by anyone who hasn't read about it online, or isn't a great predictor of plot twist).
More notes narrows it down to Luna as the one with an admirer, though Sam is not yet revealed. One plot twist is that the notes were actually being exchanged by their parents. However this inspires Luna and her siblings to sends notes to their crushes. The last to due so is Luna who leaves a note in a locker. The same group passes, but it's the girl with blonde hair who stops. She smiles as she reads the note, and Luna smiles around the corner, showing the possibility of returned affections.
The moment is pure and super adorable.
It's a wonderful surprise, though fit for "The Loud House" as a supporting character has had two dads since early on in the show.
It honestly just makes sense. In a family of 11 siblings the chances are high at least one will not be straight.
After a series of nine hetero-romance lines, it's only fair to have some non-straight representation to reflect the diversity of the real world of the kids watching.
Sam reminds me a lot of Jackie Lynn Thomas of "Star vs. the Forces of Evil." Perhaps it's a troupe for a main character to have a crush on the cool blonde girl with a blue strip in her hair.
Assuming her family knows who Sam is (which I'm sure they do) they were super supportive. This is an excellent example of not having to "come out" to one's family. There's an "I have a crush" moment that the siblings have in common, and Luna's is not treated any differently.
I'm excited for all the children watching, who one day may have a "Sam" crush as well. I wish I had this growing up, so it's fantastic progress that future generations will.
The best part is how normalized Luna's crush, and Clyde's parents are. While the media might be excited (yes, I'm a small part of that) the kids watching will see it as no big deal, and that is worth celebrating.
