The Black Women Characters that Mara Brock Akil Has Gifted Us
From (Girl) Melanie to Mary Jane, Mara is an OG storyteller in every sense of the phrase.
Mara Brock Akil. If you’ve ever been even mildly interested in the person who created some of your fave (and frustrating!) Black women characters, you’ve heard this name before. If you haven’t heard of her name… you’ve definitely heard of her characters’ names, Honey!
Before I get into the characters, though, let’s talk history. Mara’s historic reign includes:
🍯 She became the youngest African-American showrunner after creating GIRLFRIENDS.
🍯 She became the first Black female showrunner with two concurrent TV shows on broadcast TV (GIRLFRIENDS and its spinoff, THE GAME).
🍯 She is the only African-American showrunner to have a series on the air every single year of the 2000s.
To sum it up? Mara. Is. THAT. GIRL. And part of that is due to the many versions of Black womanhood that she gave us. Fully nuanced, flawed, determined, wise, joyful, loving, stressed, and accomplished women that will live on… FOREVER (see what I did there??).
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