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What Joan From Girlfriends Taught Me About Boundaries And Healthy Relationships

Like many of us, I was excited when Netflix UK announced that all eight seasons of Girlfriends would air. Needless to say, I binge watched all the seasons in a few weeks. 

Girlfriends was special, as the US sitcom explored the experiences of everyday Black women living in America trying to navigate their way around friendships, careers and relationships. The show was created and written by Mara Brock Akil and featured an all-Black cast of four women: Joan, Toni, Lynn and Maya.

Many of us twenty somethings first encountered the show on the now deceased Sky TV Channel - Trouble. In the early noughties, Trouble aired Girlfriends as well as a plethora of other Black American sitcoms.  

When I watched the show for the first time as a teenager, I really couldn’t relate to any of the situations that the characters found themselves in, after all I was a teenager at the time. I just loved seeing Black women living their best lives on my TV screen, as we all know that was a concept that British television at the time was foreign to.