The Proud Family Revival and the Importance of Black Girlhood

The Proud Family only lasted for 52 episodes and a film, but those two seasons of television were a huge part of my childhood. They told story of 14-year-old Penny Proud, the eldest daughter of her eternally embarrassing father Oscar Proud and her level-headed mother, Trudy Proud. She and her friends would get into the typical wild situations that a cartoon heroine dealt with in the 2000s.

Penny Proud was right there besides Kim Possible as an iconic teen girl, and the fact that she was Black made me even more excited to watch. Growing up in a Black neighborhood and going to Black schools, almost everyone I knew watched the show. So now, with the revival The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder kicking off on Disney+, it is a new chance for that Black girlhood to be at the center again.

Kyla Pratt, the voice of Penny, spoke to HuffPo about The Proud Family and said that despite the heavy uptick in revivals across the board, it never felt like the revival was played out. “I think knowing the situations that we had, and the storylines that we had, and the people that we have working on the project, I never felt that way. I felt like they were about to kill it in every single way,” she said.

Pratt also said she didn’t realize the effect the show had until people started came up to her to discuss how much it meant for people. “I sat back like, wait, there isn’t anything on TV like this,” she explained. “To me, this is a family, this is a daddy, the mama’s cool. You got a Suga Mama, who is crazy but has your back no matter what; we all got Uncle Bobbys who we sometimes claim.”

I have only just started watching the revival, which aired today, and there is still an issue of Dijonay Jones being treated like she’s gross while being the only fat, dark-skinned girl in the core main girl cast. I hope that changes soon, because I hate that aspect. However, Michael is there as a gay Black person who has been upgraded into a fashion icon, and that is fun to see. Plus, we have a new gay Black characters in the cast, which is also inclusive without making a bit deal out of it

I loved Penny sitting Oscar down and telling her father she was growing up and telling him to listen to her. And as someone who had an overbearing father who didn’t always listen, it felt nice to see Oscar actually hear her and respond in a healthy way. Those are the kind of things young Black girls need to know is possible—that they can have personhood.

Plus, we rarely see Black girls go through puberty as a storyline in animated stories, so getting to see that is fun. The series has never been perfect, but I love what it tried to do, and hopefully, with time, we will be able to see how it has changed for the better. The original theme song remains unmatched tho.

(image: Disney)