10 months ago
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America Ferrera is making a powerful speech. The 39-year-old Barbie star accepted the #SeeHer Award at the 2024 Critics Choice Awards on Sunday (January 14) at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. The honor is given to a woman who “advocates for gender equality, portrays characters with authenticity, defies stereotypes and pushes boundaries.” Keep reading to find out more… “I grew up as a first generation Honduran American girl in love with TV, film and theater, who desperately wanted to be a part of a storytelling legacy that I could not see myself reflected in,” she said. “Of course I could feel myself in characters who were strong and complex, but these characters rarely, if ever, looked like me. I yearned to see people like myself on screen, as full humans.” She said when she started working, it seemed “impossible that anyone could make a career portraying fully dimensional Latina characters, but because writers, directors, producers and executives who were daring enough to rewrite outdated stories and to challenge deeply entrenched biases, I and some of my beloved Latina colleagues have been supremely blessed to bring to life some fierce and fantastic women.” She also shouted out the next generation of Latina actresses, including Ariana Greenblatt, who played her daughter in Barbie, Jenna Ortega and Selena Gomez. “To me, this is the best and highest use of storytelling. To affirm one another’s full humanity. To uphold the truth that we are all worthy of being seen—Black, brown, Indigenous, Asian, trans, disabled, any body type, any gender. We are all worthy of having our lives richly and authentically reflected.”
