Personal Narrative: My Life As A Black Nurse

I grew up a shy, reserved girl that dealt with being one out of a handful of black people in my small town. I was isolated, silenced. I observed a warped blue-eyed and fair-skinned version of the world that even television and films supported. They had a way of making the largest and most culturally rich cities seem as ethnically and socially uniform as my own town. Luckily, it fueled my introspection and creativity. I imagined countless scenarios with heroines that could look like me. Earning an undergraduate degree in Psychology reinforced my understanding of people’s actions, motivations, and interpersonal relationships. So, my storytelling is character driven at its core and features a more inclusive kind of normal especially with regards
They defy archaic stereotypes much like real women I know, women that were my computer science professors or basketball coaches. Women largely drive my storylines with their decisions, cleverness, and mistakes. My female characters are funny, intelligent, sexual, strong, and vulnerable, but most of all, they are complex. As a child of a Black nurse that is also a mother of four, I have witnessed firsthand how race can further impact the unique issues that powerful, professional women face. The expectation of strength in all things personal with the presumption of weakness in all things professional is not only a difficult and relevant challenge but it’s an exciting theme for me to explore as a screenwriter trying to add depth to my female characters.
Furthermore, I do not shy away from writing messy women. Not just the stereotypical rolling their eyes kind of characters, I write women that make bad decisions. I write female antagonists that disrupt my heroines. It allows me to dig into the experiences that have put them on such an unsavory trajectory. It allows me to write compelling foes outside of the normal paternalistic and misogynistic man. But mostly, it allows me to get to the heart of female characters and really give the audience a proper journey to invest
Rarely is there nuance or depth. My storytelling explores the gray because life isn’t absolutes. My writing teeters the line between comedy and drama, sometimes blending the two. But even my comedic stories contain a strong emotional undercurrent or a relationship that audiences can root for. Ultimately, I believe characters from underrepresented communities deserve the gritty stories that only white male characters seem privy to. My experiences living at a unique intersection of race and gender help me to sculpt compelling stories featuring characters from all walks of life. After all, a lonely and impressionable person could be desperately scouring the television looking for representation and validation. I write to make that