How Watching Black Panther Helped Me Love Myself

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I don’t want to sound dramatic, but watching Black Panther helped me love myself a little more. Last night, I got the chance to see the newest Marvel superhero movie, Black Panther. I was so excited for a lot of reasons. I love Marvel superhero movies, so I’m always onboard when there’s a new one to see. But even more than that, I was excited to see a superhero movie that not only had people in it that looked like me. I was excited to see a superhero movie that starred people who look like me. As an African-American woman, it’s rare to see people who look like me in big movie star roles. And it’s even more rare to see people with brown skin in a superhero movie. It was really important for me to go see it in theaters opening weekend to support the movie.

I wanted to be a princess.

Growing up, I was always a fan of comic books, superheroes, and princesses. But, none of the mainstream favorite heroes or princesses looked like me. I remember one of my classmates told me I couldn’t be Ariel (the little mermaid) when I grew up, because I was black (I’m still not sure why my skin color and not my lack of mermaid-ness was what disqualified me for that dream in his eyes). I always loved those characters and those movies, but a part of me wished there was someone with brown skin among those heroes.

Now that I’m a mom, it’s even more important to me that there are characters and superheroes and princesses with brown skin. I want my kids to watch movies and tv shows and read books that have characters that look like them. Can we all still relate and love characters that look different from us? Of course we can! But when you grow up never seeing those characters who look like you, it can have an effect on your self-esteem. I think it’s really important to see that heroes and princesses come in all shapes, sizes and colors. People with brown skin can be princesses and superheroes and anything else they want to be.

Representation matters for the kids.

With the new Black Panther movie, we have a black superhero on the big screen in a huge movie that’s being successful and getting good reviews, and it is so exciting. It’s exciting not just for me, but for my kids and their friends. I want them to grow up seeing people who look like them being successful, being amazing, being superhuman. Representation matters!

When I was little, I didn’t know what it would feel like to watch a movie with a superhero who had my skin tone. I didn’t know it would feel so validating to see people who look like me filling the movie theater screen. Black Panther was a lot of things. It was a great superhero movie, first. As I said before, I love Marvel superhero movies, and this was one of the best in my opinion.

Black Panther=AMAZING!

Outside of the superhero side of things, Black Panther was such a great showing of black actors and actresses in these amazing and powerful roles. The men and women in the film were strong and funny and charismatic and multidimensional. Watching such amazing actors and actresses made me feel better about myself. It made me feel happy and optimistic. It made me feel like I can do and be anything I want to be. Even a superhero or a princess. And that’s a great feeling.

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