Yesterday marked 30 years since Xena: Warrior Princess first aired. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed, because the show still feels like part of me, not just something I watched, but something that helped me grow into the woman I am today.

When the series ended in 2001, I was sixteen, right on the cusp of adulthood. I was still figuring out who I was, and what kind of life I wanted to live. Looking back now, I realise that Gabrielle was more than just my favourite character; she was a guide, a role model, and, in many ways, the spark that set me on the path toward becoming a writer and activist.

What moved me most about Gabrielle was her capacity to love, and the lengths she would go for her soulmate. Time and again, she sacrificed everything, her safety, her comfort, even her ideals at times, because she believed so fiercely in Xena. That devotion wasn’t portrayed as weakness; it was her greatest strength. She taught me that choosing love, in all its forms, is not about giving yourself up, it’s about standing firm in who you are and who you believe in.

As a teenager, I may not have had the language for it, but I felt the weight of that representation. The bond between Xena and Gabrielle, intimate, unwavering, and so clearly a love story, showed that love between women could be powerful, heroic, and world-changing. For so many of us, it was the first time we saw ourselves, our feelings, reflected back with dignity and depth. That mattered; it still matters.

Gabrielle gave me courage to use my voice. To tell stories. To believe that words can heal and inspire. She also showed me that activism, sacrifice, and loyalty are not abstract ideas, they’re choices we make every day when we decide to stand up for something or someone we love.

Thirty years on, I remain deeply grateful. Grateful to Lucy Lawless and Renée O’Connor for bringing them to life with such honesty and compassion. Grateful for the writers who dared to put two women at the centre of an epic. And grateful for the teenage me who watched Gabrielle walk beside Xena and thought: maybe I can be brave enough to live like that too.

Gabrielle is still with me, when I write, every time I speak up about injustice and I think she always will be.