When was the first time you saw yourself represented in media? Depending on your racial background and gender identity, this might be an emotional topic for you. The fabulous folks over at Black Girl Nerds have partnered with Netflix to produce a project called #FirstTimeISawMe, in which the site’s writers and editors talk about the characters that spoke most to them as kids. They’ve also taken to Twitter to ask readers to post their own stories under the hashtag. The writers focus on TV characters, and go on to mention specific Netflix shows that speak to them now, as adults, but the hashtag is full of characters from film, television, and books.
The first moment you see yourself onscreen can stick with you for years:
A moment of appreciation for these ’80s style icons:
A love of Star Trek leads to great things:
And The Craft continues to bewitch:
Head over to Black Girl Nerds to read more about the project, and tell them about the first time you saw yourself represented on the hashtag #FirstTimeISawMe!
There was never a moment when I “saw myself” on screen or in a book. I watched shows and read books with lots of characters who had a situation, an interest, or a personality trait in common with me and those little commonalities helped me get close to the characters.
Those same characters often belonged to the other sex, had different ethnic backgrounds, or grew up in different socio-economic conditions than I did. If the characterization was good, none of those differences kept me from appreciating the characters and getting invested in their fates.
It wasn’t difficult for me to imagine that you could change a character’s traits to make them more like me if I wanted to imagine the story happening to someone like me. But that wasn’t my purpose. I wasn’t looking for myself. I was looking for interesting people facing intriguing problems and having fantastic adventures.
I don’t look for myself either–like @1, I’m more interested in the characters. It’s like genealogy–I’m more interested in finding out what my ancestors’ lives were like than how I am or am not like them.
The first “oh yeah!” recognition was in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone with all those mentions of Harry waking up and putting on his glasses, or everything looking blurry without his glasses. And when my mom and I saw “Prisoner of Azkaban” and there were point of view shots from Harry’s point of view when he and Hermione were getting whomped by the Whomping Willow when I nudged her and whispered “That’s what it’s like to be nearsighted.”
In terms of Inner Self, I first saw myself in two characters: Edmund Pevensie of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe fame & Johnny Tremain from Esther Forbes’ gallant historical novel. As an adult, I’ve seen my whole self in the works of Kai Ashante Wilson, specifically Sorcerer of the Wildeeps and (more presciently) in the character of Aqib bgm Sadiqi from A Taste of Honey; also Gian, the lovely, lovable, loved protagonist of Wilson’s short story Super Bass.
@15/16yo reading truman capote’s autobiography. minus the artistic talent.
I’ve always seen myself in characters. They tend to reflect pieces of us so we can relate to our situations, and yet they’re different enough to introduce us to new ways of thinking. I think it’s important not to let what we read reflect ourselves too much lest we hide in echo chambers and learn nothing about empathizing with others and finding things we have in common with those who seem the most different.
I am, and always have been, a short and slender GUY. Usually the hero and their serious team are all tall (usually remarked upon), or at least average. The short guy is usually comic relief (think Danny DeVito or Joe Pesci).
The one exception I found was Silk, from Eddings’ Belgariad & Mallorean. Yes he was funny, but you laughed with him not at him. He was the best friend and mentor of the hero, and he matched all the other characters for body counts in the fighting. I could go on forever:)
I’m still waiting.
I’m a complicated person, and it seems every time someone manages to capture part of me they insult or mock another part of me far worse. If we want a good starting point then it is for people who are not Scottish to stop putting on Scottish accents, please, especially for comic effect. Not one of them nails it.
There is a lot of other stuff too, but one step at a time.
Meg Murry in A Wrinkle In Time. Awkward, unpretty, troublesome and troubled. I ran into her when I was about 10 or 12. I also wanted desperately to grow up and be Mrs. Murry, with a lab off the kitchen — in the 60s and early 70s that seemed like the only way I could be both and scientist and a mother.