Colton Haynes is sharing a few words of encouragement for those looking to find support amongst the LBGTQIA+ community.
As the world continues to celebrate Pride month and honor the voices from the LBGTQIA+ community and its allies, the Arrow alum offered up his heartfelt advice to those who are "just feeling alone" at times.
"I do have my chosen family and I think it's really important to really try to find your community," he exclusively told E! News. "Because there are people online—there's so many different places where you can find the love that maybe you didn't get or the love that you didn't feel like you needed, like all of us do growing up."
The 33-year-old, who publicly came out as gay in 2016, also listed specific online channels that can serve as pillars of support. "Whether it be through HRC [Human Rights Campaign] or through even EJAF [Elton John AIDS Foundation] and all these different organizations out there," he added, "so as long as you don't continue to hide yourself away because you feel unloved, I mean, really, once you realize that you are you're worthy of love without pain."
He continued, "There are people out there who will love you exactly for who you are. And really try to lean into that as opposed to the opposite…Focus so much on that."
Colton—who also recently published a deeply personal memoir regarding his life—also opened up about how people can offer encouragement as allies beyond the scope of social media.
"I mean, really check on your friends," he shared. "Check on your friends and see how they're doing as opposed to how they may be presenting how they're doing online. Because I think we all know that a lot of that stuff is not genuine or it can be genuine, but it doesn't really reflect on how they're really feeling—it's just to present that way."
As for the importance of Pride, the actor explained why the celebratory occasion is needed across the globe. As he told E! News, "It's really important to celebrate Pride because there are kids out there who may not be able to and are too afraid to share their experiences and too afraid to feel like they can exist in this world that is really it's very difficult."
In fact, he related his present-day advice to his own upbringing. "I grew up in a town, a really small town [Andale, Kansas] where I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to share this," he said. "And there's just a whole different life out there. And I think whenever they see people being out and open and proud of who they are—I really think that that can show you that there is that light out there for you as well."
Colton concluded, "It's really important to celebrate and share your own experiences because there are people out there who are struggling and feel like they'll never be able to be their authentic selves. And I think that the more that we do our best to live openly and show that we are not ‘bad' or that once we show that we are real people, I feel like it'll give the people the feeling to exist on their own and to be who they are."