glimadora:

i will NEVER forget the day i realized there were no white people in avatar the last airbender. i turned to look at my brother and said, “there aren’t any blond people.” i remember thinking that was so weird. there was no one like me in this cartoon and i hadn’t realized until just then, years after watching it for the first time.

my brother just kinda looked at me and said, “yeah?”

that was the first time in my life i hadn’t seen characters like me on screen. it really sunk in just this year that a lot of people grow up like this, seeing shows over and over again and they aren’t the heroes. they’re either not there, they’re villains, they’re comedic relief, they’re plot devices with no arc, they’re one dimensional.

representation is important. diversity is important. shows with diverse representation aren’t “catering” or “virtue signaling,” they’re being written by people who know how to write.