“Trans People Getting Their Flowers” is the first full Reel of socia released after the trailer for trans led social first series, In The Midst Of... Love Flourishes. We chose it specifically to establish what we wanted the project to stand for: showing trans people being loved.
At a time when trans people are so often asked by media to explain themselves, defend themselves or speak about trauma, we wanted our first real introduction to In The Midst Of... to offer something completely different. We sat trans couples together on a couch and asked each person to tell us what they loved about their partner.
But the heart of the idea wasn’t simply hearing those words. It was watching trans people receive them.
Our goal was to capture the tiny, unguarded reactions that happen when someone you love tells you exactly what they see in you: the smiles, embarrassment, laughter, tears and moments of allowing yourself to be adored. We wanted trans audiences to see themselves reflected through tenderness and possibility, while inviting wider audiences to encounter trans lives outside the usual frames of politics, conflict and trauma.
We called the Reel “Trans People Getting Their Flowers” and extended that idea to the audience, inviting viewers to comment “🌺” to give trans people their flowers too.
We hoped this first Reel would introduce the emotional language of the entire series, begin building an audience from zero, and demonstrate that joyful, intimate trans storytelling belonged in people’s everyday social feeds.
“Trans People Getting Their Flowers” was designed to be radical. It was designed to break any and all societal narratives around trans people not being loveable, not only for cis audiences, but first and foremost for the trans community themselves.
During production, we filmed our couples with three cameras simultaneously. One captured the pair together, while the others allowed us to stay closely on each partner. That became crucial when editing this Reel: we could hear someone describe what they loved about their partner while simultaneously watching that partner absorb those words.
Those reaction shots became the emotional center of the piece. A smile spreading across someone’s face, a moment of shyness, laughter or visible emotion communicated something that dialogue alone could not. The audience wasn't being told that trans people are loved, they were watching trans people experience being loved.
So much mainstream content about trans people is framed around transition, adversity, politics, trauma or the need to explain trans identity to a cisgender audience. We deliberately removed that burden from our participants. Nobody in this Reel had to justify who they were or educate the viewer. They simply got to sit beside someone who loved them and hear why.
The edit brought several diverse couples together, allowing the accumulation of those intimate moments to make a larger statement about trans love without ever needing to explicitly make one.
We built the social engagement around the same idea. The Reel was titled “Trans People Getting Their Flowers,” and viewers were invited to comment “🌺” to give trans people their flowers. It created a simple way for someone encountering the Reel, even someone who didn't know what to say, to participate in the affirmation at the heart of the piece.
We set our release to Valentine's Day 2026, maximizing on the zeitgeist of a day all about love.
This was also our first opportunity to discover whether the larger premise of In The Midst Of... Love Flourishes could work. We were launching a new series from zero audience, without paid promotion, into a social environment where trans content frequently attracts hostility and where outrage is often rewarded with attention.
Rather than compete through provocation, we led with tenderness.
Within the first 24 hours, the Reel went viral on both Instagram and TikTok.
That response became a proof of concept for the entire series: intimate, joyful trans storytelling could stop people mid-scroll, generate conversation and travel far beyond the audience we began with. Six months later, the original post is still being watched and shared.
Within 24 hours, “Trans People Getting Their Flowers” had gone viral on both Instagram and TikTok.
Six months later, the Reel has surpassed 8 million views across platforms and continues to reach new audiences.
This single post introduced audiences to the premise of our series: trans people shown through love, joy and human connection rather than trauma or political debate. Its immediate response demonstrated that there was an enormous appetite for those stories and helped launch the audience for the series that followed.
That first post ultimately became the starting point for a community that has grown from zero to more than 136,000 followers across social media with over 50 million views across the wider series, all organically.
For us, success wasn't simply that one Reel went viral. It was that a post built around something as quiet as watching trans people receive love could cut through a hostile media environment, reach millions of people and prove the concept for everything that followed.
Audience response:
"Watched this on a loop. 🥹 With all of the craziness going on I needed to see pure love and adoration. 🫶🏿"
" I’m so confused how anyone can watch something THIS beautiful and authentic and hate it, the world needs more of this ❤️"
"This is the representation we need, I haven’t seen much trans people in love and I would’ve loved to see this when I was younger thinking that I would never find love because the way I am."
