When I was growing up, I didn't see myself in the books I was reading or the movies I was seeing. I read many fantasy books and every young heroine that went on a journey was white with blonde hair. The characters were nothing like the people I saw everyday.
I never really wondered why I wasn't there. I think that it was so common that I figured that's just how things were supposed to be. As the years passed, as my passion for theater, film, and television grew, I felt the confines of wanting to be a black woman in the entertainment industry. I was in eighth grade when I decided that I would change that. I wanted to put myself on screen. I wanted my voice to be heard so that I could let other young black girls like me know the world is full of possibilities. Because when it happens, when you do see someone who looks like you, it can be magical. It truly does make you feel like, "Wow, this means I can be something!" And it might feel weird thinking that it had to take someone so distant, someone who doesn't even know you to make you finally believe in yourself. But, sometimes it's exactly what you need. It feels like someone understands you. It feels like the media recognizes your existence, like they are saying, yes, we see you.I mean, look at these little girls!
Can't you just feel the excitement? Can't you feel how entranced this little girl is?
Look how excited this boy is! It's so beautiful and amazing!
It's important for this to happen when we're young. And it works, it really does. Look what it did for Whoopi Goldberg.
Representation matters to those who struggle with mental illness as well, like I do. Personally, when I first watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower and met Charlie, a freshman with anxiety and depression, I felt a part of me on screen. He has his own world of problems, but the biggest part of his anxiety was seeing everyone he loved in pain and not being able to stop it. It was like someone out there knew about my struggle and was kind enough to try to make the rest of the world understand what I am going through. It made me feel okay to be a little psycho.
And LGBTQIA+ people deserve representation too. They deserve stories that aren't just about coming out or chock full of graphic sex scenes. They can have stories about someone who, I don't know, wants to study the ocean who just happens to be bi-sexual. They deserve to simply exist without fear of being killed off the next season...
...because lesbians deserve happy endings too. The industry really needs to place more focus on asexuals, pansexuals, demi-sexuals, intersex, gender queer, non-gendered, and gender fluid people in the world. I want a movie that depicts a polyamorous relationship. I want stories that represent the world I see.
Representation is the acknowledgement that people are not the same. A person's skin color, hair type, sexuality, and/or gender identity does not make them a certain type of person. No one stereotype should be allowed to represent a group of people anymore. It is 2016 and we need to change. We notice where we do not exist. And we are asking for the industries to change, to hear us, and include us.
