For many young people navigating their identity, the distance between who they are and who they are pretending to be is a landscape of quiet terror. Our guest this week is author, digital creator, and modern parenting voice Sean Szeps. Known to his massive global audience for his unfiltered humour and joyful, chaotic look at life as a queer dad, Sean has built a digital sanctuary rooted in radical self-acceptance.

But behind the infectious laughs and viral videos lies the memory of a boy who carried a suffocating weight for far too long.

In this deeply moving conversation, Sean takes us back to his childhood years in New Hampshire, pulling back the curtain on the intense anxiety, stress, and isolation that defined his youth. For years, he suffered in silence, trapped behind a wall of religious dogma and societal stigma that convinced him his truth was inherently broken. We explore the gruelling mental toll of hiding your true self—the constant vigilance, the fear of abandonment, and the exhausting worry of what might happen if the secret ever slipped out.

But everything changed at 11 o'clock on a Tuesday night, as a 15-year-old Sean finally found the immense courage to stand in his mother's bedroom doorway, shaking and sobbing, to hand her a letter. In that pivotal moment, his mother pulled him into an unbreakable embrace: "I love you more than anything in the world. There is nothing you could ever do wrong that will change that. I've got you."

This is an extraordinary, heart-wrenching, and ultimately triumphant look at the power of parental grace and unconditional love, and the courage to tell people who you really are.

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Disclaimer: This episode contains discussions of childhood self-harm. If this raises any difficult feelings for you, please reach out for support. In Australia, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. International listeners can find local resources at findahelpline.com.

Credits: Produced and Hosted by Dr James van Cuylenburg & Nick van Cuylenburg.

Audio production by White Owl Sound.

Season 2 is brought to you by Engage 1on1 Psychology

Special thanks to the wonderful Julia Ferracane from Righteous PR for introducing us to Sean and for recommending him as a guest.

If you believe in what we are doing and would like to support us to make more, then we will gratefully accept any donations here: https://youreagoodkid.com.au/support