There is a growing need for big name, epic films to contain main roles with women and people of color due to a surprising lack of motion pictures representing them and promoting characters children can look up toward. With recent movies such as Wonder Women and the upcoming “Black Panther,” there has been a recent increase in more motion picture minority groups beginning to be represented.

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For many adult women and people of color growing up within the last few decades, a relatively short list of actors and actresses representing a minority in the media have provoked enough reception to become extremely popular. Personally, I imagine it would be difficult to grow up only watching movies containing these formulaic, standardized heroes leading to a possibility of a group feeling a lack of representation.

It is vital for kids growing up to have a role model and someone they can be inspired by, and many times these initial figures are represented in movies seen at a young age. Without having content for these young girls and children of color, I imagine that a certain essence of pride in one’s skin color or sex is unfortunately not necessarily lost, but not provided at a significant time in a child’s life.

When “Wonder Woman” first hit the theaters, I remember sitting in the movie surrounded by young girls who were enamored and captivated by Gal Gadot’s performance desiring to be more like her. In turn, I am sure many of those young girls were finally able to dress up for Halloween as a powerful woman role, and not something stereotypically dainty as a butterfly or princess.

Additionally, because there is such a small number of superheroes of color represented in big films, the upcoming movie, “Black Panther,” provides an African American child the opportunity to have a role model they can look up to who is their skin color. More studies are coming out stating that it might be more important for minorities to have a role model that they can observe as being significant in their life. Indeed, both Wonder Woman and the Black Panther are wonderful opportunities for kids in a minority group in film to feel finally represented.

I hope that the movie industry continues the trend beginning to gain effect in representing these minority groups that need a hero; it is important for these groups to develop a sense of identity commonly aided by movies seen at a young age. Therefore, it is vital that film continues to represent powerful roles of women and people of color allowing kids the opportunity to have a relatable role model.

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