How Second Jen is helping to expand Asian experiences on television

Amanda Joy never saw herself represented in the media but she saw that as a good and bad thing. 

"On the one hand, I never felt like anyone who looked like me could ever be accepted in the media and anybody who looked like me could never have their story told," Joy explains. "But I'd look at magazines and my white classmates would see the girls on it and go, oh I wish I could look like that and I'd say 'I will never look like that!'" 

Many years later, Joy is hoping to help correct that with her TV show Second Jen, a comedy that features Asian leads and have been compared to the likes of Friends. 

When asked why instances of appropriation and racism still exist in entertainment, Joy says: "Hollywood has historically tried to tell stories while using exoticism and orientalism, and using characters from the 'far east' in a way that's comfortable to the broad American audience."

But thanks to shows like Fresh of the Boat, and now Second Jen, the Asian experience is slowly but successfully carving out its own space in western culture.

WEB EXTRA | Watch the trailer for Second Jen below.