My Favorite Fictional Fly Girls: 5 African-American Actresses Who Shaped My Teen Years

Written By: Rebecca Naikada—Growing up as a black teenage girl in rural Canada, there were not too many people around who looked like me, much less teenage girls. But I am convinced I survived being the only black girl in my high school because of my fictional television role models who were some of the flyest black girls I had ever seen.

. . .

1. The Black American Princess (BAP): Lark Voorhies or Saved By The Bell’s Lisa Turtle: The beautiful actress Lark Voorhies played the prim high school student Lisa Turtle on the popular television sitcom, Saved By The Bell. The ever-stylish Lisa was smart, gorgeous, wealthy, and unapologetically confident among her peers. Armed with a keen sense of entitlement (remember her famous lines such as “am I a 10 or what?”) there’s no question that she was the first teenage card-carrying member of the BAP Club. Watching the fictional Lisa successfully navigate through Bayside High as the sole black girl in her school, I learned to strive for perfection in everything I do and do it all in style.

Find out which other actresses made the list in the article My Favorite Fictional Fly Girls: 5 African-American Actresses Who Shaped My Teen Years, available in MIMI's fall 2010 issue, New Wave Noir.

(Photo Credits: © Pixland / PunchStock Photo)