Mediated Identities: A Qualitative Exploration of How Adolescents from Six Countries Make Sense of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation in Media

Gender is socially constructed, including through engagement with media. Researchers used virtual in-depth interviews with 17 young people (15–23 years old, M = 17) from six countries, including Brazil, Iran, Kenya, Nigeria, South Korea, and the United States, to explore how teens make sense of gender portrayals in media. The researchers identified media stars popular with each adolescent and discussed their perceptions of the star’s gender and then showed participants images of two global social media influencers who challenged perceptions of gender as a binary. Results obtained after a thematic analysis of the data highlight that teens make sense of gender via traditional cues and associate gender perceptions with sexual orientation, in part given the limited representation of nonbinary and other LGBTQ+ people in media.