It was last year that Kenya Barris and his team gave us a spin-off to his hit TV show “Black-ish”, introducing us to a new story told from a new point of view. The character, Zoe, daughter of main character, Andre (played by Anthony Anderson) finally goes off to college to begin a journey that most of us are already familiar with – the journey of defining yourself, finding out what you want to do, and trying to survive!!! The show is called “Grown-ish”. This show immediately got my attention, as I hadn’t seen many shows about college students while growing up. I was very intrigued mostly because I did not know what to expect. A lot of us grew up during the High School Musical era. You know what I’m talking about… We were all in middle school, and although we knew high school wasn’t going to be filled with singing and dancing, we still had hope that it would be a ray of sunshine like it was in the movie.

So I wondered, were we going to get a “College Musical”? – a show that ignored the actual $#%! us students actually have to face and just tried to cheer us up with gleeful episodes? Thankfully, the answer to that question was no. Kenya Barris and his team chose to entertain us, however, not with watered down approaches to college, but by displaying real life, stressful, irritating – but nonetheless – common college bull$#%! We could all relate to. For example, the first episode had Zoe encounter a problem sooooo many of us have had to endure, SECURING HOUSING. The list of college student problems Barris chose to include in this series goes on to include: drug addiction, summer relationships, dropping classes, panic attacks, sex, and a plethora of other complex problems that college students have to go through that are even too hard to explain.

“Grown-ish” is a show that definitely walks in it’s parent show’s footsteps. Now awaiting it’s 6th season, “Black-ish” has stolen the attention of viewers around the world as it confronts everyday struggles that an American family goes through. Kenya Barris set out to make shows that can address the issues. One thing I especially love about his creations are that no show ends with a definitive answer on how to perceive this thing we call life. I don’t think Barris’s goal was to tell people what is right and what is wrong. The purpose is to address and ignite conversation.

Now in it’s 2nd season, “Grown-ish” has impacted the lives of many college students not because it directs students in the way that they should go, but in fact by the show addressing and igniting conversation around college student problems. It gives us students validation and something to relate to. This show is a testament to the idea that you don’t always have to have the answer to every problem as much as you just need your problem to be validated sometimes. I recommend you watch the show – 10/10.