Nancy Drew and the Secret of the Forgotten Gays

Back in the nineties, Nancy's world got a little more fabulous. Then everyone suddenly forgot.

Flashback to the days of Goosebumps, grunge, and girl power.

Paramount Pictures / Via sfstation.com

It’s 1995 and summer is just coming to an end. Mortal Kombat dominates at the box office, TLC’s Waterfalls tops the charts, and the O.J. Simpson trial rules the headlines. Pop culture this year is peak nostalgia for many, and lost somewhere in the shuffle of scandals and smash hits is an American icon. Nancy Drew, that venerable girl detective, celebrates sixty-five years in print by finally heading off to college. There she’ll encounter mystery, romance, and some much-needed diversity.

Simon & Schuster

Nancy Drew On Campus launched in a blaze of mid-nineties glory when its first installment, New Lives, New Loves, landed in bookstores on September 2.

Disney-ABC / Via nydailynews.com

Campus was the sixth Nancy Drew spin-off developed by publishing giant Simon & Schuster since its acquisition of the famously titian-haired teen back in 1979. Like The Nancy Drew Files, then already in its ninth year, Campus targeted a mature young adult audience, focusing more on romance and teen drama than on mysteries and adventure. Despite its more grounded realism and candid handling of topical issues (teen pregnancy, sexual assault, white supremacy, etc.), the series’ deviation from the standard Mystery Stories formula proved fatal with critics and readers alike. After a run of only two years and twenty-five volumes, Nancy Drew went from coed to dropout.

Today, the series has fallen into semi-obscurity. Apart from vaguely influencing a contemporaneous first-run syndication series from Canada, and, in 2002, a TV movie-of-the-week (pictured above), it has remained merely an out-of-print footnote in the Nancy Drew history books, its principal legacy Nancy’s breakup with long-time boyfriend Ned Nickerson. But it deserves better than this reductive ignominy.

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For Nancy Drew, the absence in her adventures of meaningful, diverse representation has been a long-standing source of criticism. While characters of color have appeared in the meta-series since Nancy first unearthed The Secret of the Old Clock in 1930, they were few and far between, their portrayals too-often tinged with racism and xenophobia. Existing at first only as stereotypically-rendered servants and suspects, later as friends and neighbors confined to the pages of a single book, never to be seen or spoken of again, they never possessed any kind of depth or permanence.

Campus changed that, updating the Nancy Drew universe for the Benetton nineties by introducing a diverse cast of main and supporting characters, each fully realized with agency and story lines all their own. Nancy Drew fans of color could now finally see themselves reflected positively in new recurring characters like Ginny Yuen, Reva Ross, Andy Rodriguez, Pam Miller, and Will Blackfeather. Moreover, queer readers of all backgrounds found cause to celebrate when Campus made history by introducing the first explicitly gay characters to the Nancy Drew canon.

Simon & Schuster

In New Lives, New Loves, Nancy and her best friends, George and Bess, leave behind the comfortable familiarity of River Heights to embark on a search for independence, reinvention, and self-discovery in the new and exciting world of Wilder University. Thematically, the novel is bound to resonate with young LGBTQIA readers, and George’s subplot (wherein the United States government has mistaken her for a man) is sure to leave those firmly in the “George-is-really-queer” camp tickled pink. (Her series-long romance with the aforementioned Will Blackfeather, to whom she loses her virginity? Not so much.)

It's with Bess, however, that most of us will be able to relate.

Grosset & Dunlap / Via faithmoosang.com

From the moment the trio arrives at Wilder, Bess struggles with anxiety, uncertain she can make the transition from bubbly blonde party girl to serious academic collegienne. Her insecurities are only compounded by the loneliness and rejection she experiences as her friends seemingly drift apart from her. Bess, normally so sparkling and vivacious, has never before felt so uncomfortably out of her element.

Things quickly go from bad to worse. Her first night on campus, a narrow escape from being sexually assaulted at a frat party leaves Bess traumatized and spiraling further into depression and anxiety. Self-doubt consumes her, and with no one around to lend her any support, she becomes withdrawn and edgy. A disastrous experience at class registration may easily have proven the final straw for her fraught nerves had it not been for a hopeful ray of sunshine named Brian Daglian breaking through all the gloom.

Simon & Schuster

Brian immediately proves a positive force in Bess’s life. Thanks to his “contagious” cheerfulness and unconditional support, she begins to feel safe and welcome at Wilder for the first time. Finding someone as "chronically confused, late, and averse to higher technology" as she is gives Bess the emotional booster shot she so desperately needed, and the two become fast friends. From here on out, they are each other's rock, a dynamic duo if ever there was one.

Simon & Schuster

After grabbing some “double-thick milk shakes,” the newly-minted BFFs walk around the quad, Brian telling Bess jokes and singing her songs. Bess mentally notes that he’s “like a private, one-man party, quirky and cute and undeniably handsome.” His exuberant nature and easy-going charm lighten Bess’s mood almost instantly, giving her the confidence to finally confront and work through her trauma.

It’ll take another two books for Bess to put her ordeal behind her once and for all, however. (Like a boss, she single-handedly plots and executes the takedown of her would-be date rapist, exposing him as a drug dealer and securing his arrest and expulsion.) In the meantime, On Her Own, the series’ second entry, finds Bess still lonely, insecure, and struggling to cope. Yet whenever she sees Brian, “the one new male friend she’d made at Wilder,” she feels “her bleak mood melt away.” With his support and encouragement, she even agrees to audition with him for the drama department’s fall production of Grease! (Both are theater majors and manage to land minor speaking parts.)

One night over cappuccinos, Brian tells Bess how important her friendship is to him, too.

Simon & Schuster

Bess turns bright red and her mind starts to whirl. She considers how “she felt around guys she had crushes on” and realizes “when she was with Brian, she didn’t feel any of the giddiness and confusion that came over her when she was around cute guys.” But then she starts to wonder if “maybe feeling this comfortable around a guy is what real love is all about” and quickly talks herself into believing she and Brian “might be destined to become more than friends.”

Now convinced she and Brian are soulmates, Bess is caught completely off-guard when, during the Grease! auditions, he tells her he has a crush on someone else. This revelation devastates Bess and she rushes off shortly thereafter, unable to face him.

But Bess can’t avoid Brian forever. After leaving eight messages on her answering machine, Brian finally shows up at Bess’s dorm to talk.

Simon & Schuster

Bess tells Brian that while she’s happy he’s found someone, she just wants him to leave her alone and spare her any further humiliation.

But Brian’s not willing to give up on their friendship so easily. He has a confession to make first:

Simon & Schuster

Bess thinks back and realizes Brian’s secretive and mysterious behavior of late now all made sense, and why she “didn’t feel giddy and goose-bumpy around him [was] because he was friend, not boyfriend material.” A wave of relief washes over her and she embraces him. “That’s great! I’m so happy for you, Brian,” she tells him, immediately and unequivocally supportive.

But of course she is! She and Nancy have had their own little dalliances, after all.

Grosset & Dunlap

And people think George is the lesbian?

Good thing Brian's not a bear, though.

Grosset & Dunlap

Bess isn't so fond of those.

All kidding aside, now that Bess knows she’s not the object of Brian’s affections and why, she's dying to know who is.

Simon & Schuster

Bess can barely contain her excitement from bubbling over. She can’t wait to tell Nancy and George, but Brian immediately stops her, swearing her to secrecy because he’s not ready to be publicly out yet. “My family doesn’t know about me, and I’m not sure how they’ll take the news,” he tells her. “I’m afraid it’s going to hurt them.” Bess understands and promises to keep his secret.

In the following novel, Don’t Look Back, Brian takes Bess backstage to meet Chris.

Simon & Schuster

The meeting is brief but sweet. After leaving Chris to his work, Bess "playfully nudges" Brian and teases him about Chris's being "The One." Brian blushes, and he's delighted to hear that Bess likes Chris and thinks the two of them "look great together."

Brian and Chris are still going strong when next we check in on them, though Brian's still not ready to be loud and proud.

Simon & Schuster

Tell Me the Truth, the series' fourth offering, ends with the first scene we get that's told from Brian's point of view. Unfortunately, it's not a happy one. Campus is, after all, first and foremost a teen soap opera, and Brian's overdue his share of drama. And I don't mean Shakespeare.

Returning to his dorm after a late-night rehearsal session, Brian finds a note "scrawled in pathological zigzags" sticking out from under his door. "Dear Brian," the missive reads. "Who knows you're gay? I know. And soon, so will the rest of the world. Even your father. Bye-bye―for now. We'll chat soon."

The mystery of who's blackmailing Brian is a major story line that spans the next two books.

Grosset & Dunlap

Compelling and character-driven, filled with suspects and red herrings that will leave readers guessing right up until the disturbing reveal, the mystery is easily one of the series' best-crafted. Of course, that's of little consolation to poor Brian. Not the type to court confrontation nor to share his problems with others, he keeps the blackmail a secret from everyone, resigning himself to being trapped in a hopeless situation.

Bess is among the first to notice that something is amiss, perhaps recognizing in Brian's late behavior the social withdrawal and edginess that characterized her own battle with post-traumatic stress at the start of the series. Seeing how her normally dependable fellow cast member has become erratic and forgetful during rehearsals, Bess checks in with him.

Simon & Schuster

Brian tells Bess he thinks his mom "will be totally cool" about his being gay, and suspects she may even already know. When Bess asks if it's his dad's reaction that's keeping him from coming out, Brian says, "It's not my dad I'm worried about, either."

Though technically true, it's a somewhat misleading response. As Brian later clarifies for Bess in It's Your Move, it's the consequence his sexuality could have on his father's career that's his real source of concern. The elder Mr. Daglian is apparently a councilman in Brian's hometown, a "pretty big suburb of Milwaukee" that's "your basic conservative district." Brian's father is up for re-election, and the race so far is a close one. Brian fears that the scandal of having a gay son would "tip the scales in favor of [his] dad's opponent." He can't bear to jeopardize his father's career, and so has determined to keep his sexuality a secret at all costs.

But when Brian accidentally lends Bess a tape with a threatening message on it, she learns all about the blackmail.

Grosset & Dunlap

Outraged for her friend and disgusted that anyone could be so sick and cruel, Bess offers Brian all the love and support she can. She urges him to come out to his parents, or at least to tell Chris what's happening ("He cares about you very much, and this affects him, too"). Brian promises to tell Chris, but no one else.

That changes when his parents unexpectedly show up to the opening night of Grease! Brian realizes he can't go on keeping his problems to himself and giving in to his blackmailer's demands. He finally agrees to take Bess's suggestion and ask Nancy for help. Nancy and George are momentarily stunned to learn Chris and Brian are gay, but they quickly recover and agree to investigate. Frankly, George isn't much help, but Bess and Nancy work tirelessly to help their friend. At last they figure out who the culprit is and invite Brian to help them nail the creep. He decides not to tag along, however.

Simon & Schuster

"Shaking like crazy," so we later learn, Brian picked up the phone and made that call. Though we don't actually get to witness the big coming out, Brian recaps the conversation for Bess, Nancy, and George when the four friends hang out in Bess's room that night.

Simon & Schuster

The ever-sentimental Bess is moved to tears, so happy is she for her friend. They have some emotional work to do, and they know it, but it's nice to see how loving and supportive Brian's family is. Strangely, the series never follows up on the results of the election, so let's just assume that good prevailed and Brian's father was reelected and became a champion of LGBT rights.

With his blackmailer exposed and left to rot in jail, Brian could now finally move on with his life.

Simon & Schuster

The remaining performances of Grease! go off without a hitch before enthusiastic audiences. Later, Brian receives much personal acclaim for a Vegas-style lounge act he puts together with Casey Fontaine, a fellow drama student and former major television star, wherein they impersonate Madonna and the artist then-formerly known as Prince. Brian's star is definitely on the rise.

And as for him and Chris? Well, presumably they continued to go strong. But as we learn in Getting Closer, "even though Brian had told his parents, he and Chris kept a very low profile on campus." They keep so low a profile, in fact, they evidently escaped the notice of Campus's ghost writers. After a one-sentence mention as "Brian's friend" a handful of books later in Hard to Get, Chris disappears from the series altogether.

Thankfully, Brian sticks around, appearing in almost every book for the remainder of the series' run.

Brett Beiner / Via chicago.suntimes.com

When last we see him, he and Bess, in a stroke of genius casting, have won the leading roles of Brick and Maggie in the drama department's production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Though upstaged opening night by a mad bomber (I told you this series was a soap opera), the two go on to earn rave notices for their work. "Brian Daglian turns in an inspired performance as Brick and shows he has the range to tackle any role," writes the local newspaper in their glowing review, also naming Bess "the clear star" of the show and "one of the most promising actors to hit Weston in a long time."

It's always good to go out on a high note.

It's been just over 20 years now since Nancy Drew On Campus ended.

Her Interactive / Via pinterest.com

With the abrupt and unceremonious cancelation of the series that originated them, Brian Daglian and Chris Vogel vanished into young adult oblivion. Once again the Nancy Drew universe fell into heterosexual homogeneity. Not until May 2015, with the release of Sea of Darkness, the most recent of the Nancy Drew PC Adventure games from Her Interactive, did new queer characters enter the Nancy Drew canon. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it text exchange, professional treasure hunter Dagny Silva was confirmed to be a lesbian. The game's writer, Katie Chironis, later claimed on Twitter that two other characters in the game were bisexual, leading to much speculation and skepticism as to their identities.

Months later, CBS announced a Nancy Drew television reboot was in the works.

CBS / Via nancydrewsleuths.blogspot.com

Simply titled Drew, the show was envisioned as a diverse and modern take on the classic children's series, exchanging escapist mystery adventures for standard procedural fare. Sarah Shahi was cast as a Nancy Drew who was a thirty-something NYPD detective. Best friend George Fayne, played by Vanessa Ferlito, was her partner on the force. Taking a cue from decades of fan speculation, this version of George was written as a lesbian. When the pilot failed to impress test audiences, CBS shelved the project, prompting some questionable accusations of executive misogyny.

But that wasn't the last we'd see of a queer-bent George.

Dynamite Entertainment

Following their success with The Big Lie, 2017's well-received neo-noir re-imagining of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, Dynamite Entertainment revealed plans to give Nancy her own self-titled comic.

In the months leading up to the limited series' June 2018 debut, various media outlets were already singing its praises. The Advocate went so far as to declare it "the intersectional, queer makeover we've been waiting for," sadly demonstrating just how far into obscurity Nancy Drew On Campus has fallen over the intervening years. ("Fans of the original who never quite looked or felt like the . . . straight white teens depicted in those books will finally have an array of characters who better represent them," the article says, reducing the likes of Brian, Will, Ginny, and Reva to so much chopped liver.)

At the center of the Advocate's and others' excitement was the series' promise to "finally, unmistakably [queer] perpetual 'tomboy' George."

Grosset & Dunlap / Via newworldzorro.com

With her boy's name, short-cropped hair, athletic prowess, and devil-may-care attitude, George Fayne perfectly embodied the New Woman when she made her big debut alongside cousin Elizabeth "Bess" Marvin in 1931's The Secret of Shadow Ranch.

Since then, George has undergone scant few changes, but in the context of later decades, the same characteristics that once marked her as a flapper archetype lent themselves to anachronistic readings of her as a butch lesbian. Such readings are perfectly fine, if perhaps tired, but to assume this understanding of the character is intended, universal, or inevitable shows a certain casual ignorance of the facts.

Dynamite Entertainment

In any case, Dynamite made good on their promise, and when we first see George in The Case of the Cold Case, Chapter One, she is making out with her girlfriend, Danica. Thus, another queer character was added forevermore to the Nancy Drew canon.

And yet, for all the hype that surrounded this series' "modern," "intersectional," "feminist" take on the world of Nancy Drew (and the Hardy Boys; god forbid we get a Nancy Drew story these days without those two showing up), it somehow managed to feel dated, its minority characters handled in a very one-step-forward-two-steps-back fashion.

Perhaps the biggest weakness of Campus was its having far more characters than it could handle, but the series at least tried to treat them all with respect. They felt fleshed out, complex, and enjoyed at least one shining moment in the spotlight. By contrast, all the characters in this latest comic incarnation of Nancy feel completely one-note. Writer Kelly Thompson succeeds in conveying a strong sense of the characters' personalities (an easy feat given they all have the exact same one), but fails to tell us almost anything else about them. The newly-added characters of color are just so much window-dressing, included, so it appears, only to appeal to socially-conscious millennial readers. (What purpose did Noah and Mia even serve in their one-page appearance, other than to be the off-brand Wallace and Mac to this Nancy's off-brand Veronica Mars?)

Dynamite Entertainment

Personally, I liked Danica, and I hope to see more of her in future stories, but that's thanks entirely to Jenn St-Onge's endearing artwork. Even though Dani receives arguably more "screen time" than did the criminally underused and underdeveloped Chris Vogel in Campus, I still know less about her than I do him. I at least know Chris wants to become a director one day; I don't even know Danica's last name, let alone her career aspirations. She and George may get to hold hands and make out, their depiction may be spared from cringeworthy mentions of "lifestyle," but I have no sense of how they met, how long they've been together, or what they see in each other. Brian and Chris may have awkwardly spoken to each other like a couple of bros, but they clearly cared deeply about each other, and I could believe them as a real couple. Aesthetically pleasing though they may be together, can George and Danica's relationship really be seen as some progressive, intersectional queer feminist godsend?

Penguin Random House

Brian and Chris may not have been the first gay characters ever to appear in a mainstream young adult series (they were at least predated by Sweet Valley High's Tom McKay and Jake Farrell), but they were among the first, and for that reason alone deserve not to be forgotten.

And yet, that seems to be the case. By all appearances, they have been forgotten (at least, I hope, until now). Despite Nancy Drew's not-insignificant queer fan-base, inexplicably, not one review of any of the Campus books on Amazon or Goodreads so much as mentions Brian or his boyfriend, and the numerous fan-run websites out there dedicated to all things Nancy are likewise dearth of references to the pair. This virtual damnatio memoriae truly is a mystery worthy of our beloved strawberry blonde heroine.

Grosset & Dunlap

When dealing with a media property like Nancy Drew that has a long and predominately white, hetero-normative history, it's commendable to do a take that's more inclusive. In and of itself, race- and queer-bending characters is a fine, if imperfect, approach to achieving this desired inclusivity. Creating altogether new characters, naturally, is preferable, but not when they're being included instead of, rather than in addition to, the diverse characters who have come before them. Doing so only treats these minority characters as disposable tokens, easily replaceable once someone new comes along. They should be treated as cherished friends, worthy of permanent places at the proverbial table. If we're not willing to afford these characters the longevity their straight, white cohorts enjoy, what's even the point? Why should any of us settle for the low-hanging fruit of a lesbian George when there's a vibrant Brian waiting in the wings?

Simon & Schuster

The CW is reportedly working on the third attempt in as many years to bring Nancy Drew back to the small screen. Next year, Warner Bros will release Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, the first in what it hopes will be a new series of films about the indomitable teen sleuth. There's even a Nancy Drew Broadway musical in development. It seems like now, more than ever, Nancy Drew is in hot demand.

So, too, is diversity in media representation. Thus, I put it to you, Simon & Schuster, Dynamite Entertainment, Warner Brothers, Her Interactive, the CW: When contemplating your next adaptation of Nancy Drew, consider that though making one of the established straight, white characters black or gay may satisfy some, wouldn't it be better to first bring back the black, native, Asian, Latino, and gay characters who already exist in this franchise? Adding some one-use-only new minority characters may generate some easy buzz, but throwing weight behind the minority characters of the past has the actual potential to change the status quo, and shouldn't that be the real goal here?

Simon & Schuster

Nancy Drew On Campus introduced readers to a large cast of exciting new characters, none of whom should be forgotten entirely. Among them, Brian and Chris, who still have so much to offer the franchise, and not merely as tokens. Just think what an asset they'd be every time Nancy investigates a haunted theater or needs to translate some arcane text in a dead language. (“I had to fall back on my old standby ― Advanced Latin for another of my courses,” Brian tells Bess before reciting some ancient poetry.) With their insight into the worlds of drama, politics, and pop culture, they could prove invaluable additions to Nancy's squad of super-sleuths.

Brian and Chris are wonderful, charming characters who deserve lasting happiness. They deserve the chance to be loud and proud, liberated and in love together in the River Heights (or Weston, whatever) of today. They deserve a chance to track down clues alongside Nancy, George, and Bess. And Bess definitely deserves to have her brother back. After all, Brian's our friend, no matter what. Remember?