At the ripe age of 20, I haven’t watched a show that I felt genuinely represents real life problems or situations. That was until I binge-watched the new web series, Brown Girls.
Brown Girls follows the lives of two women of color living life in Chicago. Lelia, a South Asian-American who is recognizing her queerness and Patricia, a Black-American sex-positive musician. The two live together and throughout the 7-episode series experience what it’s like to get fired, watch someone you slept with date another person, and throw a punch.
Photo Credit: Brown Girls
The series also features a lead with a Muslim background, as Lelia receives constant phone calls from her ‘Auntie’ and reluctantly agrees to go to the Mosque for Eid Mubarak. This type of representation is important, especially in today’s political climate. Although South-Asian and Islamic representation are increasingly growing, there still is very little representation.
Despite the important portrayal of young women of color, the most refreshing thing to me that Brown Girls brings to the table is the authentic representation of living in Chicago. Not only are we seeing brown girls on screen, brown girls is fairly repping the South Side of Chicago. I’ve been to parties like that, I’ve climbed those insane stairs to the El, I drink Revolution.
Art Credit: Makda Zewde, from Brown Girls
All in all, Brown Girls offers something that most other series haven’t offered: reality. This show isn’t just another web series, but it’s an original web series that tells real stories. You get excited to see places you’ve been, places you recognize, people that are like your friends. Most of all, you get excited to see people like you.