Series

Jessica James is an incredible protagonist

Having a 'carefree black girl' as the main character is one of the things Pearl Boshomane finds refreshing about Netflix's 'The Incredible Jessica James'

13 August 2017 - 00:00 By pearl boshomane tsotetsi

There used to be a sketch on Saturday Night Live called "Bein' Quirky with Zooey Deschanel".
It poked fun at the whole idea of the quirky girl, the celluloid and TV trope Deschanel has embodied from her 500 Days of Summer past to her New Girl present.
But Deschanel no longer holds the monopoly on "bein' quirky": the quirky girl (who is also pretty much the same trope as the manic pixie dream girl) has been intersectionalised to match our "woke" social media generation and she's known as the carefree black girl.
She's the girl with the natural hair (be it a tightly-coiled 4C crown or the envied looser curls of Solange) and the left-field dope style.
She's the self-loving black girl who enjoys Arcade Fire as much as she does A$AP Rocky - and she couldn't be bothered what you think of her.
Over the past few years, we've been spoilt with the presence of the carefree black girl all over the internet, so it's only natural that she's made her way onto your TV (or PC) screen. Our latest carefree black girl is the protagonist in Netflix's The Incredible Jessica James, a rom-com starring former Daily Show cast member Jessica Williams...

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