Issa Rae Talks Her HBO Show, #BlackGirlMagic, and the New Black Media Renaissance

Our editor-in-chief, Kimberly Foster, caught up with Issa Rae to discuss her jump from YouTube to HBO as well as her thoughts on the latest Black entertainment success stories.

Kimberly started the conversation by asking Awkward Black Girl creator, Issa Rae, why she chose to move into television after seeing success from her web series.

"Television is still very, very broad. It still reaches the masses, there's something about television impacting the culture. Having grown up in the 90s and having been influenced by great story-tellers of color and women of color on the TV screen, there's something full circle to me about being on television because it still represents a lot," Issa responded, adding that she also wants to add the stamp of validity that creating for television brings.

On the stresses of working on TV, Issa said that her experience bringing her new show "Insecure" to HBO has been extremely positive. "Every draft that I've done with them, I feel good about it." she told Kimberly. "I always maintain that HBO is the closest you can get to the internet... HBO has always been taking risks and changing television for the better."

Issa and Kimberly continued to talk about Black women in media. Although Issa is critical about how the media portrays Black womanhood, she is optimistic about Black women reemerging in mainstream media. "I'm very optimistic. Because of women like Shonda and Ava and Mara and the women who represent them on screen, there is hope. And as long as there are people behind the scenes who are telling those authentic stories, I'm hopefully that things will change," she said.

Issa let us know that she just finished filming the pilot for her upcoming series "Insecure," and urges fans to let HBO know that we can't wait to see our favorite awkward Black girl on the TV screen.

Watch the interview below.

awkward black girl HBO Issa Rae