I was the definition of a bookworm growing up. While other kids ran around during recess and lunch playing, I stayed in the school library getting personal book recommendations from the librarian. Coincidentally, my middle school librarian, Mrs. Addison, got a job at my high school so our lunchtime book convos continued well into my teen years. Every Saturday, Mrs. Addison would go to her local $1 bookstore and purchase a handful of books. She’d read them over the weekend and give me the best ones to read the following week. My hunger for stories greatly exceeded what the school library could offer. I had learned to outsource my reading selections! I read everything I could get my hands on.
Reading became an escape for me. No matter what I was facing in real life I knew I could find solace in a book. When my high school crush got a new girlfriend, I read YA novels from Sarah Dessen where the girl always gets the guy of her dreams. When I was on the outs with my parents because “they just didn’t understand,” I read A Day Late and A Dollar Short by Terry McMillan whose matriarch struggles to maintain healthy relationships with her children. Long before I knew to seek out a therapist to help sort the questions within, the characters in my books held the keys to all my life problems.
At some point, a shift happened. I didn’t want to just read stories, I wanted to tell my own. And the medium changed. I still love a good novel but I eventually grew to appreciate TV/film’s ability to capture an audience’s attention. By sophomore year of high school, I knew I wanted to be a screenwriter. There weren’t a ton of shows centered around Black people on air at the time. After UPN dissolved, it seemed all the Black people on TV disappeared. I was going to change that.
Fast forward to now. I’ve graduated college. I’m working in the entertainment industry as an assistant. I’m still writing my stories and still planning to bring more diversity to the screen. But now it doesn’t feel like such a formidable task. Black people have reappeared on our TV screens and we are killing it! Today’s Emmy nomination announcement was full of Black excellence. I was so proud reading the names of all the nominees. Here are creators who look like me and who have a passion for storytelling excelling at what they do. Many of them started out as children hungry for stories just like I did. I can’t wait for the day when I join their ranks. Like Issa Rae so eloquently stated “I’m rooting for everybody Black.”
