#FirstTimeISawMe

Submission 5,868

About

#FirstTimeISawMe refers to a diversity and representation awareness campaign started by Netflix, which collects stories, interviews and tweets about the first time people of color saw actors and characters they related to in popular culture.

Origin

On August 1st, 2017, Netflix launched a campaign about diversity and representation called "First Time I Saw Me" or "#FirstTimeISawMe." The purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness about the representation of people of color in popular entertainment, and to do that, Netflix interviewed to directors, writers, creators, actors and fans of color to tell their story of the first time they related to someone on TV or in the movies.

The first video featured on Netflix's Facebook^[1] page featured Krissy, who points to the Netflix series One Day at a Time as a realistic and positive representation of Latino and Cuban culture (video below).

Spread

Throughout the day, Netflix continued to share videos on various channels. Two of the videos that received the most attention featured directors Ava DuVernay and Spike Lee (videos below). In their respective videos, the two discussed the importance of having control of images on screen and how that opens up larger discussions about race in society, by allowing people of color to be portrayed in different ways and being able to make those decisions.

One of the most popular posts from the campaign came from the Twitter^[7] account for Black Girl Nerds. They wrote, "BGN had an amazing chance to collaborate with @netflix for #FirstTimeISawMe, where we chat about the first time we saw ourselves in media." The tweet (shown below) received more than 920 retweets and 2,100 likes in 24 hours.

BGN had an amazing chance to collaborate with netflix</a> for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FirstTimeISawMe?src=hash">#FirstTimeISawMe</a>, where we chat about the first time we saw ourselves in media. <a href="https://t.co/Y0nAApQ6tO">pic.twitter.com/Y0nAApQ6tO</a></p>— Black Girl Nerds (BlackGirlNerds) August 1, 2017

Fans of the website also began tweeting. Throughout the day, people on Twitter shared their stories on Twitter, posting pictures of the first characters or actors that made them feel represented in popular culture.

Several news outlets covered the campaign including Entertainment Weekly,^[2] Mashable,^[3] The Daily Dot,^[4] Elite Daily,^[5] Indiewire^[6] and more.