The owners of a West Belfast space that houses a bookshop, café and barbers are hoping it can provide a welcoming and safe space for the city's LGBT+ community.
Ren McGuickan and Fern Fitzpatrick opened Paperxclips at Blackstaff Mill almost a month ago, to bring together both of their passions under one roof. Fern has been working as a barber for just over a year, while Ren had always dreamed of owning a bookshop.
As well as this, the pair wanted to create a space where people could sit and relax without feeling the pressure to spend money, noting that such spaces are hard to come by nowadays.
Read more: Event aiming to give insight into lived experiences of NI's LGBTQI+ community
Speaking to Belfast Live, Ren said now felt like the right time to open a space like this in Belfast. "The bookshop has always been my dream. I really like books, and I remember being about 13 and Googling 'LGBT books for teenagers' and there was just nothing," Ren explained.
"I found one, and it didn't have a happy ending. I still loved it and passed it around to all my friends, but it wasn't really good enough, it wasn't what we needed then.
"But I've discovered in the past few years there are so many more now, and we've been to similar bookshops. There's one called Category Is in Glasgow and another called Queer Lit in Manchester. We've been to a few and that was very inspirational, I think Belfast is ready for it now."
Adding that they feel "very emotional" to see the bookshop come together, Ren said he feels this most prominently when young people come in and can be themselves.
They said: "There was a group of teenagers who came in this morning, they walked over themselves as they knew their parents wouldn't allow them to come. It's great to be able to give them a welcoming space where they can come and be themselves.
"It was the sort of space I needed at that age, but it just didn't exist. There were youth clubs but you would only get to go for set hours a week. It was hard to find spaces you could go and wear what you wanted to and be comfortable on a Saturday afternoon.
"If you don't drink, there's not much else to do [in Belfast]. What are you meant to do when a café closes, just go home? That's why we wanted to stay open that bit later, to be somewhere people who don't want to drink can come and relax.
"I get really emotional about our children's section, there's picture books and stuff. I can't imagine being able to give a confused younger sibling or something a book that explains exactly what you've got going on, or being a young trans child and being able to find a book where people are talking about you and your experiences, and being able to see yourself in that. I just get really excited about that."
Fern said they're "very proud" to be able to have the space up and running, adding that they're able to help others facing similar struggles they had experienced.
"I became a barber because as a trans person I struggled to get someone to cut my hair," they said.
"It's a struggle a lot of trans people have, you want to get a haircut that's gender affirming and makes you feel good about yourself, and you want to go into a space where you're not going to be treated strangely or you're going to be told they can't cut your hair as they don't do X gender or Y gender.
"I'd always had those struggles, and thought it was something I could train to do myself. I quit my job at the time, and started cutting hair."
A year ago, Fern began to start doing haircuts from home and travelling to clients' houses. They said it's great to now have a stable base to work from.
But at the heart of Paperxclips, they said, is creating a space people can feel safe and welcomed into.
Fern said: "The idea is providing as many services as we can for queer people, and just making it a place people want to come, and feel safe and comfortable.
"If someone wants to come for a haircut, fantastic; if someone wants to come in for a book, brilliant; but if someone just wants to come and sit and have a space they don't have to spend money in, that they're not going to get kicked out at 5 - that was also a large part of the inspiration as well.
"I feel like a lot of stuff in the city centre closes early, so if you're a teenager or not the kind of person to go to bars, or don't feel safe sitting somewhere alone - there's not many places to go.
"There's very few spaces you can be in the city centre that don't cost money to exist in, we wanted to provide a space for that."
Paperxclips is based on the third floor of Blackstaff Mill and is open Thursday to Sunday, from 11am to 8pm.
You can find out more about Paperxclips and keep an eye out for upcoming events HERE.
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