When Mindy Kaling first announced Never Have I Ever on Netflix a year ago, I was, to say the very least, ecstatic. For the first time, I felt represented, seen. For the first time, I could relate to a character who was like me: an average, 17-year old, Indian-American girl in a suburban town. But despite the cultural similarities, I found myself struggling to find my story in Devi’s (the main character). After all, it was the only opportunity I had to see “my story” in modern media. I was desperate.

South Asian representation has been scarce. Anytime that there has been representation, most people (myself included) have felt betrayed by “stereotyped” or “white-washed” characters. As I read Kaling's interview on the creation of her show, I learned that Kaling herself has had the same complaints despite having written and portrayed such characters. 

Then why do many South Asians bombard her with endless criticism?

The answer lies in a quote by Denzel Washington: “There’s just so few of us, and I mean so much to my community that I feel like I can’t do that in this lifetime.” I realized that most of us who are members of minority groups are so desperate to see “our story” in the media that we invalidate the story that the writer is trying to convey. Kaling told her story and while it didn’t represent every single Indian-American girl, it represented one, and I’m sure that this one story will lead to many more.