When i was a kid, i used to religiously watch this television show on nickelodeon called 'As Told By Ginger', about an orange-haired adolescent girl, Ginger Foutley, who's daily triumphs and defeats, no matter how mundane,were recorded in her journal.
She was a 7th grader, trying to find her place in school along with three of her best friends. It showed the gradual transformation of feelings of friendship to love, bringing back the innocence that is no longer associated with love.
It dealt with what it was like to live in a small town where everything was just about average...Ginger's longing for a father who she never really had. ..The love-hate relationship with her brother and the beautiful mother-daughter bonding that she shared with her mother.
It didnt preach. It didnt go overboard with the emotions that the characters experienced. It was so real that it still gives me goosebumps.
What fascinated me was the fact how much I could relate to her, although we had pretty much nothing in common. I remember getting emotional at the end of every episode. They seemed so real. They seemed to have been made especially for me. They made me cry. They made me laugh. They gave me hope.
Ginger made me believe that I could achieve everything and that nothing was impossible. She taught me to be strong and not let the world bring me down. She showed me that there was always light at the end of the tunnel. She made sadness seem like a perfectly normal emotion to experience.
But all this while,I never really realised how deep the show actually was , maybe because i was too young to do so....
But now i realise what the makers had in mind when they gave birth to her, Miss Ginger Foutley, they wanted every girl to look up to her, they wanted every girl to want to be her friend, but more importantly, they wanted every girl to find the Ginger Foutley that lay hiding inside them!
I love you Ginger.
I am you.
You are me.
