Last year I spoke about how important representation is to feeling confident enough to express your own identity or grey areas. During the time when I was beginning to talk more about my own grey areas in 2020, I watched Netflix’s The Prom. And that’s where I first saw Ariana DeBose. The Prom cast two queer actors (DeBose and Jo Ellen Pellman) to play the queer teen couple trying to go to their high school prom together. Reading and watching interviews, both actors were so open and comfortable discussing and embracing their queerness and lack of labels. And, that in turn made me feel more confident about expressing my own.
At the Oscars on Sunday Ariana DeBose won Best Supporting Actor for her role as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. And, when she got up there, on one of the world’s biggest stages, beaming into homes across the world, she said this:
“Imagine this little girl in the backseat of a white Ford Focus – look into her eyes. You see a queer, openly queer woman of colour, an Afro-Latina, who found her strength in life through art. And that’s what I believe we’re here to celebrate. So, to anybody who has ever questioned your identity, ever, ever, ever, or you find yourself living in the grey spaces, I promise you this: There is indeed a place for us.”
— Ariana DeBose
Brava, Ariana. Thanks for using your voice to help others feel comfortable with themselves, and show that there are many successful, fulfilled people out there just like them. Your words have certainly helped me. (Also, your trouser-cape combo was fly AF.)
