Since 2006, Brooklyn-based photographer Michael Sharkey (below) has been photographing gay teenagers as part of Queer Kids, a project born out of his own struggle coming out in 1980s Colorado: 'I knew I was gay at about 10 or 12,' he says. 'But in my family sexuality wasn't discussed.' Using GAL organisations, Myspace and Craig's List, Sharkey contacted and photographed more than 50 teenagers from all over America. Nowadays, however, the kids contact him: 'It's radically different from the 1980s. These kids are out and proud.'