What to expect from SMag's youth issue starring Youngins cast

It’s back to school with the cast of Youngins fronting the cover of SMag’s annual youth issue, coinciding with international Pride Month.

Whether you find the Showmax YA series perplexing or captivating, we can agree that the 45-episode first season was an uncontested arbiter of “Ma2k”.

Two of the covers feature Tabile Tau, 25, and Lebohang Lephatsoana, 23. Through their characters, Sefako and Tumelo, they have captured the year’s most daring TV romance, changing the world for the better.

Actors Ayakha Ntunja, 21, and Kealeboga Masango, 21, grace the third cover. The rising stars have found their footing and are ready to chart a new course on local television.

Ahead of the issue coming out on Friday, here are some highlights:

Lephatsoana, who identifies as gay, on sexuality: We are proud and unapologetic about who we are, but sometimes it still gets to me,” he confesses. “When I get home, I’m just glad that God and my ancestors protected me and ensured I got home safe and alive because things can escalate fast, from name calling to something more dangerous.

Tau, who identifies as straight, on “queer-baiting”: If I play a murderer, am I a murderer in real life? If you say no, then it ends that conversation. You don’t have to be queer to play queer. It’s a craft, it’s acting, you don’t just go there and read lines. You embody parts of yourself and your essence into the lines to deliver a performance. In accepting the character, I knew a lot of people were going to make assumptions about my sexuality. I was mentally prepared for it.

Ntunja on playing Amo: We are similar in the sense that we stand for that we believe in. However, Amo talks so much. I sit there thinking, ‘Don’t enter that drama, just walk away from it.’ I will mind my own business. I can sit in a room and just keep quiet.

Masango, now 21, on her breakout role when she was 16 on Rhythm City: It was definitely overwhelming. It was my first gig in acting and it was a lot. I remember the first day on set I was shaking and I kept apologising. There was a lot of pressure, working with all these recognised and respected actors [Linda Sokhulu, Nompilo Gwala and the late Mncedisi Shabangu].

Lephatsoana on filming his love scenes with Tau: For the first time, I kissed a boy and wasn’t aroused. I patted myself on the back for having the discipline, because he’s also this hot actor. Separating myself from Tumelo was very important. But now that we have grown together, it’s more relaxed.

Tau on his surprise at how his father received news of him playing a closeted gay character: He said to me, “Ijob ijob, mntwana wam” [a job is a job, my child].

Tjiya on coming out: Undoubtedly, “coming out” is an epiphanic experience for many that is profoundly liberating. It should absolutely be celebrated. But the assumption that this is the average experience of LGBTQI+ people is fallacious. Commonly, some are met with rejection and hatred from close ones in a vulnerable moment that may even be lonelier than the so-called closet... No queer person owes the world a “coming-out” story. Stay true to yourself, the world will follow. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, fluid, nonbinary, asexual, pansexual, questioning, intersex, and many other identities, we see and respect you.