Death · Horror · Television · Trauma · Wear Your Voice Magazine

13 Reasons Why “13 Reasons Why” is Dangerously Problematic

“It was supposed to be a show to get people talking about teen suicide, bullying, sexual assault and more. It was supposed to open and encourage dialogue between generations and demystify how insidious cyber- and other kinds of bullying can be in the age of social media. ’13 Reasons Why’ had many ambitious goals. Here are 13 reasons why it fails at every single one of them.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, April 2017.

Third Culture Kids · Wear Your Voice Magazine

Netflix’s “Sense8” Gives Us the Diverse Television We’ve Been Waiting For

“Sense8 is a veritable diversity and inclusivity bonanza, and will be a useful antidote as the current Nazi and white nationalistic rhetoric grows in response to a changing world that threatens white hetero male privilege. The Wachowskis make it look so easy to have a diverse, three-dimensional cast of different races, cultures, sexualities and genders. It makes me wonder why other showrunners make such a big deal about not doing it. As someone who has lived all over the planet, I’ve never experienced a show before that mirrors my own life and my own empathic connections to others.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, December 2016.

Repatria · Television · Third Culture Kids · Wear Your Voice Magazine

The Gilmore Girls Revival Gets Real (But it is Still a Beautiful Escape From These Troubled Times)

“Haley Mlotek of The New York Times coined the phrase “emotional speculative fiction” to talk about Gilmore Girls, and that is still the best description of the show to date. As someone who doesn’t have a hometown, Stars Hollow has always offered me a special kind of comfort in imagining what it would be like to live and grow up in one place.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, November 2016.

Empath · Huffington Post · Television · Trauma · Zuzu Huffington

Internal And External Displacement: Immigration, Mental Illness, and Netflix’s River

“Immigration doesn’t only externally displace a person from familiar surroundings, language, and culture, it also internally displaces us into a cultural and linguistic limbo that at times can be a horror to navigate. Lives become split into befores and afters, and even if you inhabit a closely-knit immigrant community, immigration forces us into liminal existences often on the social and cultural margins that create perceived differences between us and them, and even causes ruptures between us and the homeland that grow more and more apparent the longer one lives outside.” My 35th article for HuffPost, published in July 2016.