Queer eyes in charge: it's a neat quirk of recent pop culture that many standout movies made for teenage audiences have been helmed by out directors who made their names with unapologetically gay feature films. Why is that? The Advocate asked three guys who'd know.

Tommy O'Haver

Gay breakthrough: Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss Teen flicks: Get Over It; Ella Enchanted Why him? "Gay films deal with relationships, and there's a pop sensibility that a lot of gay director have that transfers well to romance and comedy. Actually, I don't really like teen movies to begin with [chuckles]. With Get Over It [a loose take on A Midsummer Night's Dream], I saw the opportunity to do some musical numbers and have fun with Shakespeare."

Jim Fall

Gay breakthrough: Trick Teen flick: The Lizzie McGuire Movie Why him? "[Lizzie] was a fun big Disney studio movie that was my chance to do a Gidget Goes to Rome fantasy [since the film's heroine takes a class trip to Rome], chock-full of musical numbers. Also, the studios have to make these movies for cheap, and they know that they can get us cheap because there are not that many [openly] gay director who've managed to break out of indie gay films and do studio movies."

Charles Herman-Wurmfeld

Gay breakthrough: Kissing Jessica Stein

Teen flick: Legally Blonde 2

Why him? "I think it has to do with a shared irreverent attitude toward the culture. Gay people who are marginalized for their sexual preferences end up on the periphery of culture in the same way as teenagers who are marginalized by young adulthood and the process of figuring out the world. We share alienation. I think that studios get that we relate to a teen sensibility in a very strong way."