Stephanie Beatriz—Actor
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
I am so ready for Hills, it ain’t even funny. You know that old chestnut, “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it”? I think about that saying a lot. As a woman of color, I grew up surrounded by images of people who looked nothing like me. Now I know some of you might be shouting at the page, “Hold up, Steph—Hills be a white lady!” I know, y’all—but she is a WOMAN.
She has agency and control—and hips. Power, a brain, a voice, and for a long time, probably got her period every month. And she has refused to let anyone—man or woman—define her by her gender, her role as a mother, her haircut, her relationship with her husband, or her sexual self. She has moved through the political world and made a name for herself as a M#$%#%F#*$*$G FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH. And just by her presence, she extends her hand back to women everywhere and says, “Come along with me, we can do great things. We can rule the world.”
PHOTO: GRAY HAMNER
This article originally appeared in the October/November 2016 print edition of BUST Magazine. Subscribe today!
