Naya Rivera: Why Glee's Santana was so important to young LGBT women
"Watching Naya Rivera in Glee was like: That's me, that's a little bit of me up there."
Millions of people watched Glee for the drama, the cover versions, the comedy - and the positive representation of a relationship between two LGBT women.
Naya played cheerleader Santana Lopez, who discovered she was a lesbian when she fell for her best friend, Brittany.
Her body was recovered from a lake in California after going missing last week while on a day out with her son.
Young LGBT women have been speaking to Radio 1 Newsbeat about the impact Santana and her storylines had on them as they watched the show in their early teens.
"I was 12 or 13, I was so young and I was thinking these things. I was so terrified to say them or ever act on them," 21-year-old Claire Rowden, who's bisexual, says.
"It was just a little knock on the door being like, 'hey, it's OK, what you're feeling is real, and it's special. It's not something to feel, ashamed or uncomfortable about'."
She describes Naya's performance as the gay cheerleader as "a breath of fresh air" at a time in her life when she was feeling "suffocated" coming to terms with her own sexuality.
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-53406664