Never Have I Ever realised how important representation is

Never Have I Ever features an American high school student Devi Vishwakumar ( Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) who had a tragic first year and is trying her best to move on forward. This involved the death of her father, losing the ability to use her legs and generally becoming a social outcast with an overbearing mother breathing down her neck the whole time. She's volatile, foul-mouthed, horny, confused and emotional. So basically, a normal teenager.

There are numerous teenage rom-coms involving the un-cool kid just wanting to fit in, however this show is is unique in the fact it has a South Asian lead. Devi not only on a quest to find her identity as a normal teenager, but also that of an American-Indian. Although being British, this is the first time I've seen a character on mainstream western media that I can moderately relate to and has represented my culture at all. I cannot explain how refreshing it was and I finished the show feeling slightly emotional that this has finally happened.

Why is representation so important?

I've never harboured high hopes for representation on TV and movies. Once you've seen even Indian characters played by non-Indian actors (Venkat/Vincent Kapoor in the Martian), you start to lose faith in the whole industry. That is why, even if this series was a complete flop, I would have still watched it due being so grateful there are South-Indian actors. Yeah, the bar is set that low :(

The media we consume forges unconscious stereotypes and Indians regularly get the short end of the stick. America is one of the most multi-racial countries I've ever visited, so I'm always so surprised when I don't see a single brown person on their tv shows and movies that isn't just there for a one-liner, comedy stereotypes (think Kevin G from Mean Girls and Rajesh Koothrappali from Big Bang Theory). White people are represented in every role possible from CEO to secretary, teachers and complicated family relationships so are never holed into a stereotype box which everyone of their skin colour is seen to fit.

For the first time in my life, I've seen food that I have grown up with on TV. I've heard another Indian language I can understand and seen clothes that I have worn as part of my culture. India is an incredibly diverse place, and South Indians are very rarely featured if at all.

Although great movies like Bend It Like Beckham were ground-breaking at the time for this, I just couldn't relate to a Sikh-Punjabi family being from the opposite side of India. Of no fault of their own, this didn't stop white people asking why my dad doesn't wear a turban or whether I'll be getting an arranged marriage. Any Indian is suddenly represented by this one individual with a strict family and customs. Representation reflects the real world, that American and British-Indians are still, well, American and British. We sneak out to parties, have a mad crush on a guy at school, have crazy families and some of us are (shocker) even bad at maths!

Multi-dimensional characters

Never Have I Ever smashed this by proving a South Indian-American teen's life is as turbulent as any other. It depicts how a family tragedy affects her relationship with her mother, prays to Ganesh then falls in a pool at a house party. Like i said, normal.

This is the first teen rom-com that has felt truly American to me due to the diverse cast with real thought out personalities. I'm not just talking about casting a non-white person for the sake of it, but an East Asian that's a thespian and a Black-Latino girl that's into robotics. For young women of colour seeing characters like this that they can relate to, they are their role models and prove to them that they can be just like them.

Representation is not just casting non-white actors for the sake of diversity and filling a quota. It's fleshing out the character to be more than just a cliche stereotype and to represent real world ethnic-minority people. For women to have more than the aspiration to marry a man, for Indian men to actually be good with women and not just be the butt of the jokes and for black people to not just been seen as victims.

The hot mess that is Devi is the first time I've seen an Indian character be portrayed as true 15-year old. She acts out, cracks jokes and royally messes up. She not just wants to get into Princeton but craves the attention of the school hottie Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet) - not the usual arranged marriage. Her older cousin Kamala (Richa Moorjani) doesn't just abide to her arrange marriage (slightly disappointed they included this matrimonial custom at all), but sneaks out of the house to see her boyfriend Steve (Eddie Liu) who, by the way, was truly screwed over. Hope he gets some justice in Season 2.

Where do we go from here?

I could say so much more on this show but I just wanted to introduce its significance, especially to an audience that hasn't had to think about representation before. This is just the beginning. I hope a British series soon follows with the same level of diversity to break stereotype and move us forward to less cliché characters. The world could do with seeing more silk saris on screens because let's be honest, they're goddamn beautiful.