“so personal and overstepping” - Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp shares the struggles he faced with queer identity as a child actor

Stranger Things actor Noah Schnapp opened up about the struggles he faced as a queer child actor after achieving fame when he joined the cast of the Netflix series. Schnapp came out as gay via an eight-second video on TikTok in January 2023. 

He recalled in a recent interview with USA Today, published on December 23, how he felt being cornered about his sexuality by journalists asking about his Stranger Things character being gay and if he relates to his character. He said: 

"It was weird for interviewers to ask a 12-year-old kid, 'Do you think Will's gay? Do you relate to the character? Are you gay?' It was so personal and overstepping."

On top of that, he said that he struggled thinking about whether or not to admit his s*xuality to the public and how it would affect his acting career. Another challenge he experienced was having to talk about it not only with his friends and family but also to his publicist and manager. 

Schnapp explained that he had to consult with his management about whether he should come out publicly or hide his identity for the rest of his career. 

He eventually came out as gay in a TikTok video in 2023, lip-synching to an audio clip:

"You know what it never was? That serious. It was never that serious. Quite frankly, will never that serious."

While the audio didn't reveal much, his caption did. Noah Schnapp wrote over the video: 

"When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was 'we know.'"

His caption also confirmed that his Stranger Things character, Will Byers, is also gay. 

"People overstep a lot" - Noah Schnapp talks about some invasive fans

It's not just the journalists who tend to overstep in their questioning as far as Noah Schnapp is concerned - some fans overstep, too. Aside from feeling backed by interviewers about his s*xuality, Noah Schnapp also talked about his experience with some fans.

He recalled the time he went to college and what some "invasive" fans tried to do to get his attention. He told USA Today in the same interview: 

"Everyone's very respectful for the most part, but people overstep a lot."

He also admitted that he used to obsess about what people online are saying about him, like searching his name on social media and responding to every message sent to him. But he said that he has since taken a step back from most social media platforms. 

Noah Schnapp also explained that he has a line to remind himself about social media and what it isn't in the New Year: 

"I have on my vision board for 2026: 'Social media is not real life.'"

He further talked about setting up boundaries for his own mental health, adding: 

"It's not healthy to internalize every single opinion in the world every ten seconds."

Schnapp also said that some of the lessons he learned are that "validation is fickle" and one should learn not to get their self-worth from people they don't even know. 

As for being a child star, he agrees with what Ariana Grande said in Marc Manon's WTF podcast in February 2025 that studios and labels should offer therapy sessions to child stars. He said that child actors need some type of support system other than their parents. 

Watch Noah Schnapp in Stranger Things 5 Volume 2, dropping on Netflix on December 25 at 8:00 pm ET.