Lost in Representation

This contribution explores LGBTQIA+ adolescents’ perceptions of the representations and self-representations of LGBTQIA+ subjectivities in digital media, with particular attention to the tensions between visibility, authenticity, and recognition. Drawing on 21 in-depth interviews with young people aged 16 to 18, the study investigates how online queer visibility is received, filtered, and sometimes rejected by LGBTQIA+ individuals. In this context, selectivity, silence, and disengagement emerge as active strategies of communicative agency, capable of negotiating belonging and redefining the conditions of recognition. The paper invites us to rethink visibility not as an absolute value, but as a negotiated space between authenticity, desire, and the complexity of queer experiences during adolescence.