Brenna Harding was only eight years old when she earned the prime minister's ire for a Play School segment.
"I'm Brenna. That's me in the blue. My mums are taking me and my friend Meryn to an amusement park," she said in the now-famous 'Through The Windows' segment, which shows Harding, her mothers Jackie Braw and Vicki Harding, and her friend on a day out in western Sydney.
Though Harding had no way of knowing it at the time, her short appearance on the beloved Aussie kid's show would lead to a solid career in Australian television, which, more importantly, has led to a platform the LGBTQIA+ advocate uses as a vehicle for change.
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Brenna Harding with her two mums Vicki Harding and Jackie Braw in a 'Though the Windows' segment on Play School in 2004. (ABC)''I went on Play School with my two mums, and there was all this backlash. I mean, the prime minister [John Anderson, acting for John Howard] was saying it was wrong!'' a then-18-year-old said Harding said with a laugh in a 2014 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.
"But, actually, I just thought it was kind of exciting that he knew who I was!''
Harding took the backlash in stride, even speaking at the New South Wales Inquiry Into Same-Sex Adoption in 2009 when she was just 12 years old about her experience of being a child of same-sex parents.
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Play School presenters: Then and now
"I actually found it really empowering in the end that I got to be this person for same-sex families and that I got to have a chance to convince some of the adults who didn't quite understand it, that it was okay," Harding told Pedestrian.TV in 2022.
"All of a sudden my voice had more power."
In the meantime, Harding was cultivating her career in Australian film and television, appearing in My Place (2009) and Packed to the Rafters (2011), before starring in her first lead role as Sue in Puberty Blues (2012 to 2014, based on the iconic Aussie novel and film).
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One of her more roles as Ms Fraser in First Day (2020 to 2022) sees her act as school teacher to a transgender student navigating high-school life, in a full-circle moment for the actress.
"I think [being on Play School] shaped not only my activism but also my career as an actor, who I am as a person and the way that I communicate and possibly my queer identity as well," she said.
"It was definitely an understanding and a love of activism that was lit at a young age through Play School that continues to be an essential part of my personhood."
More recently, Harding, now aged 28, played Yvie in The Twelve and starred in Sydney Theatre Company's Dictionary of Lost Words. She is also the president of queer youth charity Wear It Purple.
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