The show is about four pre-teen girls who were out delivering papers in the wee hours of the morning in the year 1988. Conflict arises when these four young innocents get tangled in an existing war between warring factions and time travelers which brings them to different periods, allowing them to peek into their futures.
It stars 4 young and talented actresses namely, Camryn Jones as Tiff Quilkin, Riley Lai Nelet as Erin Teng, Sofia Rosinsky as Mac Coyle, and Finna Strazza as KJ Brandman. The show became popular with the masses and became the talk of the town on different social media sites, especially Twitter and Tumblr. There are many things to like about the show: The diverse and all-women main characters such as the genius African-American Tiff Quilkin, Chinese-American Erin Tieng, Caucasian tomboy Mac Coyle and Jewish-American rich girl KJ Brandman, which the actresses portrayed flawlessly despite their young ages; the unique plot line of sci-fi plus coming-of-age; and lastly, the exploration of being a young queer.
Importance of Representation:
For young girls
Recently, a movie called “Turning Red” premiered in March of last year and it gained tons of controversy. The movie is about a 13-year-old Mei who–due to inherited magic, transforms into a giant red panda whenever she experiences strong emotion. The movie gained lots of criticism because of its subject matter, some say that it presents “too mature” or “inappropriate” topics all because it talked about menstruation–just because it showed pads. Paper Girls ventured into the same subject as well, and from it, we can see how the characters lack knowledge of what menstruation is, how to handle it, the instruments to use, and so on and so forth just because the media or the people see it as taboo–a natural human thing, a taboo. If this has always been the case, there should really be caution tapes on the pads and tampons aisle inside grocery stores to prevent young boys.
I got my period when I was 11 years old, and thankfully I had my mother to guide me through the experience (although it involved some practices that were not scientifically proven). However, some don't, and at times these topics are frowned upon at school, diverted to protect the “innocent” minds of young boys. Leaving young girls to discover by themselves. This is where the media comes in handy, yet there’s nothing in there…nothing because apparently, it is for ‘mature’ audiences. Some girls at the age of nine don't start experiencing this.
For young Queers
Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t seen Paper Girls yet, I recommend watching them on Amazon Prime Video, it consists of only 8 episodes! You can also read the comic book by buying it on Amazon. Just click the picture below!
!Spoilers up ahead!
The series got canceled for a second season.
Out of the hundreds of Sapphic shows that different streaming platforms have canceled for a second season, this is the one that I actually cried at. Aside from its unique storyline and its venture to topics typically unventured yet necessary for young audiences, what struck me the most is that I wouldn’t see the budding journey of KJ Brandman’s queerness. When the four main characters time-traveled to 1999, they saw the old KJ and KJ alone and found out that in the next decade, she would be in love with a woman. At 13 she found out what her future self’s sexuality was. You can imagine how big of a revelation that is.
When I realized that I also like girls, I felt alienated from myself and from the world, I felt like I was a mistake. I didn’t doubt that I might be wrong with what I felt since I accepted it early on, the hard part was accepting the fact that I’m a glitch in a heteronormative world because that’s what I thought the world was. That is what I see whenever I watch a movie, even a cartoon, or to different posters in the city, a man and a woman, it has always been a man and a woman, a woman with a man, a man with a woman.
This is why representation matters, this is why I loved Paper Girls. I saw myself with KJ, young, scared, and confused. I can imagine an 11-year-old girl who is in the same state as was with KJ and as I was a few years ago, seeing KJ’s journey in the mainstream media could make them feel that they are not alone and that they are not some glitch in this straight-filled-matrix.
But life just is the antagonist to itself. Paper Girls was canceled despite it doing good with critics and audiences.
It seems impossible that the show will get renewed but it will still hold a special place in my heart and I will not stop saying #SavePaperGirls!
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Please support Paper Girls by creating an account on Amazon Prime Video and if you want, buy the book at Amazon!
Just click the photo below!
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I’m an attention whore.
That is all, thank you for reading!
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