Quintessa Swindell grew up in a Virginia Beach car dealership. While their father worked long hours out front, Swindell, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, watched movies starring Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman on a portable television in the back office. Their mother passed away when they were young. “My childhood wasn’t the best,” they tell me. “It wasn’t really a typical situation.”
Swindell, 27, remembers one bright moment, though. Their father had been asked to supply cars for the production of Steven Spielberg’s 2012 biopic, Lincoln, and on the last day of filming, the star, Daniel Day-Lewis, gave Swindell a signed note wishing them good luck with their studies.
