'Black, brown, indigenous, Asian, trans, disabled': 'Barbie' actress praises diversity in acceptance speech for feminist award

Actress America Ferrera praised Hollywood's push for diversity, particularly in relation to race, in an acceptance speech for an award at the 2024 Critics Choice Awards.

The "Barbie" actress was the eighth to receive the "SeeHer Award," which was sponsored by a conglomerate of brands with the stated mission of increasing the "representation and accurate portrayal of all women and girls in marketing, media, and entertainment."

"Thank you so much to the Critics Choice Association! Your powerful voices shape how people think about and value the stories we tell. I'm deeply thankful to you for this honor," the 39-year-old began, before diving into what she felt was the importance of seeing specific races in cinema.

"Receiving [this award] for my contributions to more authentic portrayals of women and girls is so incredibly meaningful to me because I grew up as a first generation Honduran-American girl in love with TV, film, and theater, who desperately wanted to be a part of a storytelling legacy that I could not see myself reflected in," she continued.

Ferrera then added that although she could relate to characters she saw on-screen, it was more important to her that they share the same ethnicity.

"Of course, I could feel myself in characters who were strong and complex, but these characters rarely, if ever, looked like me," she explained. "I yearned to see people like myself on screen as full humans. When I started working over 20 years ago, it seemed impossible that anyone could make a career portraying fully dimensional Latina characters," she added.

The actress then praised Hollywood for being "daring" enough to write content specific to her race.

"But because of writers, directors, producers, and executives who were daring enough to rewrite outdated stories and to challenge deeply entrenched biases, I and some of my beloved Latina colleagues have been supremely blessed to bring to life some fierce and fantastic women. ... Because of that we had the chance to bring through some deeply layered Latina characters. Characters that I could not have seen growing up. But now I can see her," Ferrera said, seemingly conscious of including the award's tagline.

The actress then stated she believes the primary purpose of film and television to be to affirm "humanity" and various identities.

"To me, this is the best and highest use of storytelling: to affirm one another’s full humanity, to uphold the truth that we are all worthy of being seen — black, brown, indigenous, Asian, trans, disabled, any body type, any gender. We are all worthy of having our lives richly and authentically reflected," Ferrera said.

The actress concluded by thanking a number of industry members and even actors like Ryan Gosling — who also starred in the "Barbie" movie — for being "man enough to support women's work."

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