"The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl" a Web Hit
The web series' first episode has more than 856,000 views
Stephanie Elam
The creator of the original web series has high hopes for the shows future.
Uncomfortable people, unite. Finally, there’s a web series for you.
The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl has gone viral, and its first episode has more than 856,000 YouTube views.
"I never expected, Iike, 50,000 awkward black girls to come out and proclaim 'I'm awkward,'" said Issa Rae, the series’ creator and star.
Rae said she’s not wholly awkward. She’s probably closer to about 30 percent. But that didn’t exempt her from real-life inspiration.
"I would experience all of these uncomfortable social situations and I knew that I couldn't be the only one," said Rae, who graduated from Stanford in 2007.
The show aims to represent a brand of humor rarely represented on television, she said.
"There are a lot of nerdy black awkward people, too," Rae said.
A dozen episodes, all posted on awkwardblackgirl.com, feature a diverse cast and deals with those sometimes-awkward moments encountered in multicultural relationships.
But those dozen episodes were not easy to produce. The first season made it to 12 episodes because fans wanted more.
"After episode 7 premiered with the cliffhanger, we were, like, you know if you guys want to see what happens next, we need your money to continue and to make more episodes," Rae said. "Surprisingly, it worked."
And the future of Awkward Black Girl and her misadventures look promising. The show is looking to get picked up and secure funding, Rae said.
"The dream for awkward black girl is to either stay on line with millions of views and sponsorships, or to end up on HBO is the ultimate dream," she said.
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