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Culture > Entertainment

Yara Shahidi’s Character Is Relatable AF on This Season of ‘black-ish’

Morgan C. Mullings

This season of black-ish is probably the best one yet, for so many reasons—but mainly because Yara Shahidi’s character Zoey Johnson is literally all of us when we’re about to leave high school for the freedom of college. Talk about the most confusing time between you and your family. If you’re like Zoey, you’ve always been independent, and the feeling of college around the corner only makes you want to have all that freedom ~right now~. Here’s what that means for Zoey.

Being “just friends” with a guy without your parents asking you every second if you’re dating

Trevor Jackson’s character Aaron may be (seriously) fine, but that doesn’t mean we should assume he’ll be Zoey’s love interest. They’re just getting to know each other and seem super friendly for now. Stay out of it, mom! There’ll probably be an episode of grown-ish where Zoey finds the value in all of her mother’s weird moments in some kind of heart-to-heart. But for now, Zoey just wants to have some fun.

Finally having your little siblings out of your business

Okay, maybe you relate a little bit more to Diane on this one. This fake love triangle has probably happened between every set of sisters. Zoey’s facial expression just screams “What the hell, Diane?!” This is especially awkward if Zoey does have a crush on Aaron. Luckily, her baby sis won’t be following her on college dates in a few months. 

Actually being able to avoid the dreaded family game night

I’m not sure why Zoey wasn’t there, but I’m glad she wasn’t. Monopoly tears families apart! And Dre can’t even keep his cool for two seconds, after losing all of his money. Zoey was probably out with Aaron, hanging out with other college friends or going to a free concert in a fly outfit. She has no time for such petty games.

Never being responsible for your little siblings’ screwups again

They may be cute, but Zoey is tired of always having to clean up their messes. She was particularly lazy in baby-proofing the house, probably because she knew Jack and Junior would mess it up. Seriously, though—what are they going to do without her? 

Making decisions without your mother’s approval

Also, did anyone catch the fact that she didn’t ask her mom if Aaron could stay at the house? If I ever told my mom that a boy was crashing at our place (or a girl, for that matter) with no warning, I wouldn’t be able to stay in my own house anymore. Rainbow is a super strong mom, but it’s tough trying to balance being Zoey’s friend and mother. Hopefully they lay down some ground rules before she heads off to school. 

Being grown-ish is something we all go through, but seeing one of our faves portray it on TV makes us feel just a little bit less crazy about this time in our lives. 

Morgan is a sophomore at St. John's University in Queens, New York. She is a journalism major with a passion for news and culture, and a staff writer for St. John's independent student newspaper The Torch. Aside from writing for Her Campus, she is a spoken word poet and pianist. Her past work can be found at morgancmullings.wordpress.com. Twitter & Instagram: @morgancmullings