Its taken almost 10 years for Greg Cope White’s best-selling memoir The Pink Marine to be adapted into a Netflix series, but judging by the first trailer that has been released, it will be well worth the wait.  Its a story—full of hilarity and heartbreak—of how a teenage boy who struggles with self-acceptance & doesn’t fit the traditional definition of manliness finds acceptance and self-worth in Marine Corps boot camp.

Greg writes that he soon learned that everyone enters the Corps feeling different – judged for the color of their skin, their weight, or their past. Some even choose boot camp over jail. This will push every man past his limit and strip away who he thinks he is. What breaks them also binds them. Nobody comes out the same. Something shifts for Greg. For everyone.  Greg tells his story with disarming honesty and biting wit, and describes how he and his new brothers as navigate the brutal system of recruit training. Greg must prove he belongs – and figure out who he really is.

This new Netflix series BOOTS stars a very young-looking 31-year-old closeted Cameron Cope (Miles Hiezer 13 Reasons Why ) who goes from bullied high-school kid to bullied marine recruit. Along the way, his hair is shaved off, he has orders yelled at him and he has to endure gruelling challenges. He and his best friend Ray McAffey (Liam Oh) are now  part of a  diverse group of recruits in the tough, unpredictable world of the 1990s US marine corps, when being gay in the military was still illegal.  Its under all thie pressuere that tg]hey navigates the literal and metaphorical landmines of boot camp, forging unlikely bonds and discovering their true selves in an environment designed to push them to their limit=

The trailer shows off the series’ comic side as well as Cameron’s struggles, which includes having to hide his sexuality from the authorities. There are also glimpses of Vera Farmiga as Cameron’s mother, Barbara, and Emmerdale‘s Max Parker as decorated marine sergeant Sullivan, who shows signs of a softer side when he says: “We’ve all got something to carry.”