31 TV Characters Trumps America Needs Right Now

facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
21 of 33
Next

Image via The CW

12. Jane Villanueva- Jane the Virgin

This satirical romantic comedy has a telenovela feel to it and is in its third season now. Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriquez) is a religious young Latina woman who overcomes a highly unlikely (I would hope…) obstacle in life. Being religious, she’s a virgin and is waiting for marriage to have sex. However, she accidently gets impregnated after being artificially inseminated at her doctor’s. Like I said, highly unlikely. But nonetheless, the show is telling the story of this young Latina woman- her family, her morals, her ups, her downs.

It’s always been important to Rodriquez to portray this type of woman on television. In an interview with The Washington Post, she explained growing up in Chicago. She’d turn on the TV and ask, “Why does no one look like me?” She was born to Puerto Rican parents and didn’t see much diversity on television growing up. “When I watched ‘Full House,’ I never existed. I was never portrayed. And when I did see us, we always had a very inferior position in life.” Rodriquez continues, “That lack of visibility, that lack of relatability, really made me feel kind of alone in this world. It really made me feel a certain way about myself, about beauty, what I could and could not be.” She’s now starring on a show that highlights these characters she grew up craving, and she couldn’t be prouder.