Growing up, we find ourselves faced with occasions that leave us asking "Where was this when I was growing up?" The most recent case of this was last night when I took a friend to go see Greg Berlanti's Love, Simon.

If you told me growing up as a teenager in 90s, a major film studio like Fox would make a coming-of-age film where the main character was a gay male, I would have laughed in your face with disbelief.

Dawson's Creek had only just begun to air its gay storyline surrounding Jack McPhee, and I was barely 17. The thought of a mainstream film covering the challenges of coming out and high school angst seemed like something that would be from an alternate reality.

Jump to 2018, and here we have Love, Simon. By the time the closing credits had come, the film had earned its position as one of my all-time favourite films.

Love, Simon is a beautiful and charming romantic comedy, which at times takes you on one hell of a rollercoaster ride. The film based on Becky Albertalli’s novel Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, tells the story of a gay 17-year-old's journey to come out of the closet on his own terms.

Nick Robinson stars as the closeted Simon Spiers, who has the perfect teenage life except for one thing, that he's holding onto a secret, he's gay. He seems fine living in the closet until he begins an anonymous email exchange with another closeted gay student at his high school.

As the two share experiences, Simon finds himself falling for the online pen pal who he only knows as "Blue." What follows is a unconventional love story made all the way more difficult by both feeling they are not ready to make that choice to come out.

In the hunt to find Blue's identity, Simon finds himself on a journey of self-revelation. When their secret is suddenly threatened, Simon is forced to come to terms with who he is and what that means. I don't want to go too much into detail as to not ruin it for you, but this is not your typical "coming out" film.

Despite dealing with the subject of coming out, it is and remains for the entire duration of the film, a coming-of-age love story with universal themes that you don't have be LGBTI to relate with and understand.

Throughout the film I did find myself with occasional tears in my eyes. They were definitely a complicated mix of emotions for a variety of reasons. I found myself happy that Love, Simon produced by a major Hollywood studio, has been ranked alongside other mainstream teen comedies providing the queer youth of today with a representation that I could have only dreamt for as a teenager.

The impact of this film is made even more evident by the stories flooding the internet of how Love, Simon not only inspired but gave people the strength to come out. It's for this reason Love, Simon needs to be supported so that further stories can be told to a mainstream audience.

Why am I making such a big deal of this? Because I honestly believe if I had a movie such as this in my teenage years, I wouldn't have waited until I was 21 to accept my true self.

Whether you're gay, straight, transgender, a brother, a sister, a parent or whatever else you might class yourself as, this is a must see! Love, Simon with its universal themes is a celebration of not only acceptance of one's self but also of other's.

Sometimes being yourself is the most bravest thing you can do. So when you do, remember the words of Simon's mother, "You get to exhale now."

Love, Simon is currently screening at a cinema near you.

Read more reviews and thoughts by our editor Chad St. James by clicking HERE!