The burden of representation in the film industry involves acting as a visible example for one's community while navigating complex social and political expectations.

“I started to get resp saying you have to represent us and i said what does that mean i know it to represent your own community because i mean before children a lesser god i was just a girl from chicago with dreams doing my thing”

The speaker claims that marginalized performers must develop their own creative work to achieve authentic, fully-realized representations of their experiences.

“in order for me to get those roles and be seen in that way i had to create and develop them myself i had to find those emerging artists myself who are on the periphery you know the tyrone washingtons and the shaniqua watkins are writing roles for me where i'm fully realized”