When Was the First Time You Saw Yourself in a Story

[Sam W]

There's plenty of good conversation going on right now about the importance of representation, be that of race, gender, or sexuality, in popular culture. So, that got me wondering about when the first time was that y'all saw yourselves reflected back at you in a story. For me, it was the Harry Potter books and Hermione. Not only did she look like the very "uncute" young me, she shared a lot of the personality traits of young Sam that made her feel alone.

How about you all? Was there a certain book or movie that let you see yourself, or someone who looked or acted like you, in a story?

[Jacob]

Racially I never saw any Armenians anywhere in media until System of a Down, which was pretty fun as they are a pretty interesting metal band with a fair bit of folk music influence... now of course I have Kim Kardashian, too. So those are the two bits of representation I have on that front. I also found a blogger when I was about 19, who I still follow, who wrote about politics in Armenia and the diaspora from a more progressive perspective especially with regards to gender and sexuality which is something I never encountered until that point.

I think I really related to Harry Potter too... as someone in my early teens and feeling a bit out-of-place the harry potter books are so good at capturing that feeling. I also really liked the Beano comics in the UK when I was smaller, and being a naughty boy getting into trouble was a pretty common theme in the stories there!

[unchained]

That's... a hard question to answer...

I would say the first character I strongly related to, was Cristina from the book "El Angel de Cristina" (Cristina's Angel) by Carlos Rodriguez Gesualdi (I don't think there is an English translation anywhere out there).

There is nothing particularly special about the story, it's no narrative marvel. Cristina, the protagonist, is adopted by a family that, as she grows up, ends up neglecting her because her personality is not what they were expecting in a daughter. She is nerdy, likes classical music and gets on badly with her older, physically stronger brother (which I guess were the things that made me relate to her so strongly when I was a kid). The story ends on the stereotypical "and then her real family finds her and adopts her back and everything is fixed", which is something I certainly couldn't relate to. But I did could relate to all of Cristina's social circles being made at school, and, while it's getting back to her biological family what brings on the happy ending, what first ends Cristina's social isolation is befriending a metal head gamer who confronts her brother up.

When I was a tad bit older... being a teenager, the character I found myself relating to... Well, this is going to give somebody out there a heart attack, I just know it. It was Sei from the anime Burst Angel.

So, yeah, Burst Angel, I expect none here ever to have heard of it. It's a... errmmm... mecha anime with yuri undertones.. So, Sei is not the protagonist, but is part of the lead cast. She is the grand daughter of the leader of a Chinese mafia clan thingy, and is the heir to its leadership. As a test to see if she is ready to take over from him, her grandfather sends her to Japan and she assembles a team of mercenaries to... do stuff. Anyway, what I really liked about Sei, I guess, is that she revolves a lot on dealing with the expectations put upon her, but also that she puts upon herself. The crowning moment of her character arc is when she is talking with her grandfather, towards the end of the story, and he tells her that while he admires her devotion to duty, what he really wanted all that time was for her to find what she wanted from her life, because only then she could truly grow (ok, it was probably not that deep but it really got to me back then). She then promptly goes and saves Japan from the anime's version of Big Brother.

[QueenDee]

Not a book or movie, but scary spice from the spice girls was the earliest representation of me that I've ever realized. When I was younger I gravitated toward her and I realize now it was because she was the only black one. Part of that was in the name also. All I've ever wanted to be was scary. I'm inherently a pretty nice non-threatening person and people have taken advantage of that my entire life. At 23 I'm barely coming into my own as a strong black woman and I owe a little piece of that to my young obsession with Mel B.

[ladyrevan21]

Probably the Exile from Knights of the Old Republic II. Quite literally, considering she's customizable in appearance (I chose the brown haired one with the ponytail), but that aside, teenage me thought it was so cool to just play as this kick-butt, strong, hopeful, eloquent, funny woman who actually manages to overcome her own demons. The male path is good too, but there is something about the female path that is near and dear to my heart.

[Blueswan]

Well, when I was a little girl/young teen, I loved romantic stories, but...BUT. Mostly the women in these stories (even the great literary tales), seemed to follow a certain plan: they were always pretty, always highly social, always focused on a guy (because they either were silly or they had to), always 'popular'. Often they were smart, but they didn't show it much. Then I read Jane Eyre.

Yes, I get there's a lot of problems, especially around Mr. Dickweed,...I mean Rochester, but she wasn't traditionally beautiful, she had real hardships in her life, she's really strong and no shrinking violet, she thinks about things in depth and is insightful, and she wants to live for herself, not some guy.

Later on, I watched Amilie and basically discovered my cooler French doppelgänger. Amilie is quirky and intensely good-hearted, always musing and looking out for herself. I felt a near spiritual connection to her and her life.

I could go on, but that's the two that really stand out to me.

[Catherwren]

For me, Cath in the book Fangirl. She writes fanfiction, she's anxious, she's introverted, she's smart. She really reminded me of me. And she's a twin too!

[bikinksterboy]

well I suppose my first time seeing my sexuality in a story, at least in a way that related to me, was... well I've never actually consumed any media with bi characters, not that I've avoided them but more that I've been too busy consuming all the non-bi media out there lol, like i just never have enough time to read the awesome progressive books everyone tells me about

[bikinksterboy]

An addendum: I guess you could say various vampires and other such characters in fiction who have assumed multiple guises of different genders and thus been ‘heterosexual’ with males and females counts, in which case I’d include Doctor Who among others. Also, other than sexuality one of the first times I saw a Jewish character (in something that wasn’t, like, holocaust fiction) who wasn’t entirely based around their religion but clearly showed it was The Thing of Marvel’s Fantastic Four. There weren’t constant references to it, but I distinctly remember an issue where he is clearly shown praying and reciting the Sh’ma and in another he was brought back to life by the actual Hebrew God and (I might be bullshitting this part nerds please understand) expressed his feelings about it. What stuck out to me was how it was neither a footnote nor an overblown “token” element, which I think modeled for me what good representation can look like

[wesley97]

Oh my goodness this is a tiny bit embarrassing but I have really loved wattpad in the past and the first time I really saw myself in a character was in the main character of Just Juliet named Lena.
At the beginning of the book she is dating a boy who she is not very interested in and then slowly comes to realize that she is in love with the new girl at school, Juliet, and it tells this story. It really helped me come to terms with being queer and helped me through my own journey. I actually loved this book so much that when a printed version was available I bought two of them, one for me and one for my girlfriend at the time.
xx