Gloria Noto on Coming Out, Building NOTO Botanics & Queer Identity

So yeah, I would love to start from the beginning and hear about you and your

coming out story.

Oh, my coming out story specifically, that one.

Or, yeah, I mean, I, you know, a lot of what we talk about on the podcast is, you know, people's journey is to kind of like finding themselves.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you're open to sharing, if you're open

to sharing

that.

Of course.

Yeah.

I definitely, some of my first experiences were like, were very lesbian ones.

So it was interesting because when I when I kind of like decided that I was ready and and and able to come out and be myself, it didn't really feel like a big change, it sort of felt like a natural progression.

I definitely think growing up in a very sheltered, controlling, religious upbringing kind of made me not even realize that it was an option.

I just knew that I felt a particular way.

And when I moved out, I moved out really young, like 16, and got a bit into...

Wow, do we have parallel lives? Not really.

It's so similar, it's crazy, yeah.

Yeah, then you probably understand.

but yeah, when I moved out, I like got really deeply involved into a lot of counterculture.

I was like really submerged in goth culture and a lot of, a lot of different communities that looking back on, I realized was sort of my introduction to queerness because it was very much other.

Um, and yeah.

And then when I left Michigan and moved to LA, it was like oh my god this is actually the l word i think i can be gay here this feels very so i kind of came out um officially officially and broke up with my boyfriend that i moved to la with um at 20 i think i was 23 or 22 maybe 22 um and then yeah the rest is history Yeah.

That's so crazy.

Do you feel