Speaking of teen idols growing up, have you run into Jackson Odell lately? When he was 14 years old, he filmed
Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer (2011), based on the series of children's novels. Judy and her brother Stink (Parris Mosteller) decide to have the best summer ever. Stink's involves catching Bigfoot, with the help of his teenage friend Zeke (Jackson Odell), president of the Bigfoot Believers Association.
Zeke does not, at any point, melt into a puddle of hormones at the sight of a cute girl. This is perhaps a first for any teenage boy character in the movies.
By the time the movie premiered, Jackson had grown about a foot.
He began making the sitcom circuit, with roles in
Jessie, Arrested Development, and such gay-positive series as
Modern Family and
The Fosters.
He signed on to a talent agency to pursue his singing career, and released covers of many contemporary hits, including the gay-themed
"Same Love." He explains: "This song has significance right now that I think is important to address. Let people love who they love."
He has a fan page with 50,000 subscribers.
Meanwhile he kept growing and growing. He's only 16. I wonder how muscular he'll be at 25.
You can see him on
The Goldbergs, about a Jewish family in the 1980s, as the teenage son's buddy. Nostalgia tv always lacks gay content -- the fun for hetero audiences is in imagining what the world was like in the good old days before those pesky gay people existed.
But since Jackson is so gay-positive, maybe he'll add some glimmers of gay subtext to his character.
