On Monday, November 9th, just a mere three days ago, I had the pleasure of attending a talk and book signing for one of my favorite web series creators, actresses, and writers—THE Issa Rae of The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl fame and glory! Do a quick search of her name in Google, and you’ll find the New York Times and the Washington Post are just two reputable newspapers that’ve noticed her awesomeness and, of course, awkwardness.

After years of frustration at the lack of diverse depictions of Black people in mainstream media, Rae used this absence as inspiration and created her own web series on YouTube to fill that void. Despite low funding and few subscribers, she persisted and eventually garnered great success with The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl in 2011. Now at 30, Rae has published a New York Times bestseller, is currently developing a series for HBO, and has over 150,000 subscribers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram combined!

As successful as she is, what drives me to write this is Issa Rae’s very being: the awkward Black girl in her and, quite frankly, in all of us.

Continue reading “Kermit Says: Dare to be Your (Awkward) Self!” →