ANNIE and Gracey are a femme couple who have been together for 4 years and live in Manchester. They started out as best friends for 2 years and met through Annie’s ex girlfriend at London Pride. It wasn’t until when Covid-19 hit and they had both broken up with their partners, that their relationship blossomed into more than friends. They saw each other for the first time after the Covid lockdown and when they hugged each other, it just felt different and the spark grew from there. They gained attention and a following on social media when they decided to set up joint social media pages to share bridal images they made. They realised the models for lesbian wedding photoshoots were 'playing fake lesbians' and they wanted to create genuine images. They decided to do a professional bridal photo shoot to represent couples with two femmes. When they posted a transition video from their normal clothes to bridal clothes and sharing a kiss, it went viral and had a lot of comments with people saying they thought they were twins or sisters. The same happens in public and people assume they are sisters. Annie also used to get a lot of men hit on her when they were out and when she said Gracey was her girlfriend. Despite the judgement, the couple look forward to a bright and love filled future together.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00This is Gracie. She fell in love with Annie.
00:06After years of friendship, their relationship became something more.
00:11People judge our relationship because we went from best friends to two femmes.
00:15But being young and femme, many people don't respect their love.
00:20We're not taken seriously. We weren't anticipating so much hate.
00:24Lesbian life has no meaning. You should be hunting with a strong, handsome man.
00:28We've had men physically pull us apart, like touching us and being like,
00:33get off each other, you're obviously not gay.
00:35Today we are going to go to a photo studio, try on some wedding dresses and do what we do best.
00:40Love that.
00:42We've spent all these years trying on wedding dresses.
00:44I wonder if we're actually going to do it one day for real.
00:47Morning.
00:49Morning.
00:51Do you want coffee?
00:53Oh, okay, fine.
00:54I'm 24 years old and I am a content creator and bridal model.
00:59Same.
01:01My name's Gracie. I'm 26.
01:04We've been together for nearly four years now, but we were friends before that.
01:08We first met at London Pride in 2019.
01:11We had relationships at the time that we were loyal to and we just didn't kind of,
01:16yeah, we didn't see it like that.
01:18My first impression of Annie was that she was very short.
01:20I also thought she was very good looking, but looked quite straight and a femme,
01:25which wasn't my type at the time.
01:27My first impressions of you were fit, like 100%.
01:31You had a masculine girlfriend, so I thought, unless I shave my head, no chance.
01:36After we met, we essentially became friends. We confided in each other.
01:41Things changed when lockdown finished.
01:45We both came out of our relationships.
01:46We just hadn't seen each other since the whole of COVID and we just hugged for the first time.
01:52It was really weird. It was like we walked up to each other and we had a different type of energy.
01:58You just felt like home, but you'd never felt like that before.
02:01Now we're here and we've got a dog, we've got a house rabbit.
02:04It just happened naturally. We never went looking for it.
02:07And to be honest, it just feels like living with your best friend.
02:10Shall we take a quick selfie for our Instagram?
02:12Yeah.
02:13When I first met Grace, actually, Grace was into modelling.
02:17We started doing bridal shoots.
02:19We noticed that they were asking two straight models to act as lesbians.
02:26I knew I was gay from a really young age, so when I heard that people were trying to pretend to be gay,
02:32I was like, that's just not really on, it's not genuine representation.
02:35Our community can see right through it, but also sometimes it almost mocks our relationship.
02:40We already get a lot of people being like, oh, it mustn't be real and blah, blah, blah.
02:44We weren't anticipating so much hate.
02:47Okay, so this one here.
02:50Lesbian life has no meaning.
02:52Oh, wow.
02:54It's deep, it's deep.
02:56What a clown. I think you're beautiful. You should be hunting with a strong, handsome man.
03:02There is no reason for your disgusting PDA.
03:06Abolish them.
03:08Waste of resources.
03:10Disgusting.
03:12I think the worst reaction we've ever had in person is always men thinking they can get in on our relationship.
03:19We've had people physically pull us apart, touching us and being like, get off each other, you're obviously not gay.
03:25And then they're like, I'll have one of you, they'll pick one of us.
03:29Separately.
03:31It makes me feel anxious about who's watching and why should we have to be on guard all the time?
03:37I think because we both look very similar, people think, oh, they're just friends, they're just messing around.
03:43I think we basically have to come out every day.
03:46We are here and we are representing who we are and this is normal.
03:51The way we deal with this judgment in day-to-day life is we take back our control by our page.
03:57Today we are going to go to a photo studio, try on some wedding dresses and do what we do best.
04:02Who is it?
04:04Hi.
04:05Hello.
04:07How are we doing?
04:09Tom is my little brother.
04:11Recently we've actually brought him in and he's now wanting to take behind the scenes.
04:15Yeah, so we're really excited to get him on board.
04:18When Grace first told me about Annie, I was a little bit apprehensive.
04:22But after meeting Annie, I was totally comfortable and I really did get a good vibe from her.
04:27This afternoon we're going to be going to do a shoot just down the road and I'm going to be helping him out with that.
04:32Right guys, ready for studio?
04:33Yeah.
04:35My mum said to me before she passed away,
04:38I don't understand why lesbians have to be with one masculine and one feminine.
04:43She's like, I get it, but just both be girls.
04:45And then when I found Annie she was like, yay, I get it, this makes sense.
04:50Three, two, one.
04:52Growing up I feel like I didn't actually see many femme and femme couples.
04:57It wasn't really put out there in the media.
05:00Nice.
05:01There wasn't much representation for lesbians anyway.
05:04And what was out there, it was definitely masculine and feminine.
05:06That looks great.
05:08Let's go get changed.
05:10It's probably why I went for the mask type of lesbian in the past, because I just assumed that was the only choice.
05:14Oh wow.
05:16Yes girls, look amazing.
05:18All right, let's get some shots.
05:20Nice.
05:22We get approached a lot by straight girls.
05:25Hold that guys, keep going.
05:27Asking us how we knew or how they navigate it.
05:28I think it's because we kind of look like approachable to them.
05:32They see a common ground in us and I think we want to show that through like starting our podcast,
05:37we're starting our talking videos, but then we want to branch out into a community.
05:41I love you.
05:43I feel great.
05:45We feel like we are representing, doing our thing, not fitting any stereotypes and just having fun.
05:50Yeah, we've been married about 50 times now.
05:54Yeah, we have.
05:55I feel like we've got a nice range, haven't we? A couple of different styles.
06:00We've actually been writing an e-book about like how to know if you're gay and how to like go from friends to girlfriends
06:07and we just really want to like explore what we've got, but also give that knowledge out.
06:12Nice.
06:14We want to show that you can both be the beautiful bride, no one is outshining the other one.
06:19Love that.
06:21Would you mind doing my hair?
06:23Of course.
06:25Annie's aesthetic I would describe as always makeup, always eyelashes, always.
06:32I can't go without that at all.
06:34You love to have your hair like down all the time.
06:37And I think Grace's style is like very femme, but then you have like a mum twist to it now.
06:44I don't know what that is about, I don't know if it's because we have a dog now,
06:47but to the outside world we definitely look feminine.
06:50But I feel like energy wise we're not very feminine, are we?
06:53Right Archie, are we ready for our walkies?
06:56Come on.
07:00Before Annie I never wanted to have children.
07:03Good boy.
07:05But I'm hoping that there's children in the future for us.
07:07We actually went to a psychic who said we're going to have twins.
07:10Twins are in the future.
07:12And yeah, marriage maybe one day.
07:15Definitely.
07:17But would you wear a dress now that we've worn about 5 million?
07:20No, I would wear a suit, 100%.
07:22I'd probably wear my pyjamas because I've already worn wedding dresses.
07:25To the people that judge us, I'd say mind your business.
07:30I just think you don't need to comment on people's relationships.
07:33You've got to focus on your own life.
07:35I would say we are not our sexuality.
07:38There's a lot more to us and sexuality is not a choice.
07:42We didn't choose to be this way, but we're very happy that we are this way.
07:47The thing I love about Annie is that she's my best friend and my partner in one.
07:50We get each other, we have a good laugh.
07:53In our dynamic, we don't know who's going to propose.
07:55We just don't have a clue.
07:57I think we're waiting for the other person maybe.
07:59I am, definitely.