The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

TV Review: For the culture: Grown-ish highlights marginalized students on college campuses

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“Grown-ish” presents stories that are easily relatable to college students. (Photo courtesy of theGrio)

“Watch out world, I’m grown now.”

This is a lyric I have sung and come to live by for the past couple of weeks. If you’ve been keeping up with social media or the show, a cultural phenomenon, “Black-ish,” you may have come across a group of eclectic college students huddled together discussing their Adderall-induced insomnia or their unbelievable love triangles in the show “Grown-ish.”

With its conversations on Black history, Black athleticism, protests and modern-day struggles of youth, this is definitely a show “for the culture.”

You may have come across Yara Shahidi’s beautiful face a few times and wished you were her (or maybe that’s just me).

The idea of a show like “Grown-ish” can be cliché and pretentious—however, the more I sit back with my girls and watch the heart-breaking stories and relatable adventures, I find myself forgetting about my own life for a second to contemplate Zoey’s life (Grown-ish main character and narrator).

“Grown-ish” is not just a drama-filled, laugh-out-loud connection to “Black-ish.” It is a story about a group of young adults from marginalized backgrounds having to find their way through a new and chaotic college environment.

Each character identifies with specific identities—race, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status—that are crucial to the way they react to each other and in the world.

Issues of race, gender, sexuality, and politics find their way in every show and every conversation, with the conclusions reminding us that we are all in this story together—with each revolution affecting us as a whole.

The stories in “Grown-ish” of college-aged struggles are so similar to mine and my friends’ that they could be our own. From the break-ups, hookups, drug deals and painful professors, it is a familiar story of unity in an unfamiliar environment.

The mantra sung at the beginning of the show, “I’m grown now,” speaks to the liminality of young adult life—from wanting to be an adult, yet still feeling like a teenager. The show highlights that space of confusion where college students battle stresses that are unique to the college experience.

It is a show that has brought groups of college students across America together to watch and familiarize with.

Grab some popcorn, ice cream and tissues, and get ready for the amount of shade to be thrown from Trevor Jackson’s character Aaron. It will be worth it.

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