captainswaan:

When you think of Iris West 15 years from now I’m sure it will live in people’s imaginations as a woman of color. Women, Black women especially, need to see themselves as ingenues, as beautiful, as desirable. Yes, we have our own ideas of what is beautiful, but so often what we think is cool or fashionable or beautiful is being sold to us in mediums like TV and film and advertisements, and for so long we’ve been told that being skinny and blonde and blue eyed is what’s beautiful. And it’s very much beautiful, but there are other kinds of beauty. And I think it’s not about the way that I look, it’s just Iris’ personality, her strength, her character, is being put on a platform every Tuesday night for the last three years, and people are seeing beauty in her, and that’s important so young girls that look like me feel beautiful, and feel desirable, and feel important and feel smart. I’m very proud of that, and I’m very proud that that’s continuing into the film universe.