Dash and Lily: Media Representation

Sorry if this sounds all over the place and like a barf of thoughts, but I'm so overwhelmed by all these feelings and thoughts and I want to get them down somewhere but I didn't know where else.

Media representation. These two words have been plastered all over my news feed the past few years. I think anyone who has been online -- or at least anyone who keeps up with the world's concerns -- knows how a lack of representation has been plaguing the media industry. We all know about the white-washing that happens in Hollywood -- it's always the same white, conventionally beautiful girls and boys who graze our television screens. And we all understand the impact this has on young children growing up. 

Well, I thought I understood. I knew what effect underrepresentation has, but I understood it from a superficial level. Maybe it's because it's so hard to think back about when you were a child, and consider all the things that impacted you and shaped you to who you are today. My point being, I never really understood the seriousness of underrepresentation in media until I watched Dash and Lily on Netflix. 

This show is exactly what I my 2014 felt like. It was safe, comfortable, quirky, cool, different. It was everything I wanted in my life that I had forgotten about. I was reminded of the girl I used to be, and the girl I wanted to be. And watching this girl, Lily, who isn't the same kind of girl that appears in every other show (cough Emily in Paris) made me realize... wow, she's so beautiful! Sometimes it's easier to see the beauty in another person than it is in your own self.. And I think it is through this, and finding similarities in this stranger and yourself, that you are able to somehow reconcile the things you hate about yourself and learn how to love. Because if you are able to say, wow this girl is so... awesome, and realize that she is similar to you in many aspects -- physical/visual, included -- it helps you see your own beauty.

I think this was the first show that I ever saw where I realized.. yes, girls like Lily can be the main character. Girls like Lily are awesome, cool, chic, beautiful, amazing, and not your typical white girl. Girls like Lily can be girls like me....