When you think of ‘chick lit’ or romantic comedies visions of women who more closely resemble Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Sandra Bullock and Meg Ryan are more likely to come to mind than someone who looks like you. Therein lies the beauty of a book like “Feminista” which has a woman of color named Sydney Zamora at its center. She’s a 33 year-old multiracial beauty with a bit of a self-destructive streak (that’s probably putting it mildly) and a nasty temper who decides it’s time to get married. So Kennedy takes us on a trip of her misadventures and her missteps. But her intent was not to mirror the packaged fairy tale romances we gobble up time and again but to subvert these well-worn themes and have some fun with them simultaneously. Perhaps planting the seed that women of color can be just as ‘adorable’ in their screwed up attempts to find love (crossing my fingers that the story will adapted for the silver screen).

“Feminista” started as a screenplay in Kennedy’s imagination and the thing that made Sydney her tick was her anger. It was only when the author translated what she had written novel form did she think about her race. One of the things Kennedy avoids by giving Sydney and Afro-Cuban father and a white mother is the ‘angry black woman’ label. Instead, the war the character fights is against classism and she literally ‘rages against the machine’ every chance she gets (even though she is getting the perks of being a celebrity journalist). And the real journey for Sydney is as much about finding herself (and her conscious) as it is about finding a man. But Kennedy was wise to give the man in question, Max, some flaws of his own—thus avoiding that this white man is Prince Charming perfect. It’s also about time that authors who look like us write about characters who don’t—I really like Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help” so the reverse is certainly true.

Kennedy came across the term “feminista” while reading Candace Bushnell’s “Lipstick Jungle” but decided to use it herself because it aptly describes the inner struggle women embrace today: to be ambitious, competitive and aggressive in some aspects of their lives while also giving room to their feminine whims and urges to be nurturing. This is a real life issue many sisters (and women in general) struggle with and it doesn’t end once we get married—instead it’s renamed as ‘The Mommy Wars’. Kennedy believes that because the rules have changed (and most of us are not sure what they are) sometimes it’s safer for women to chose more traditional roles.

But of course, women are talking about this nor is money a topic in our stories (real or fictional) about finding love. Kennedy thinks that if we had doses of financial reality in our books and movies then we wouldn’t be afraid to ask questions like “what’s your credit score?” or “what are your financial goals or dreams?”.And perhaps then we’d be less likely to think we’ll be walking in Central Park and suddenly meet the man of dreams and bells will ring.

Don’t get me wrong, “Feminista” is fun and at times hilarious thanks to a brazenly honest matchmaker and a magazine editor on her way to a meltdown and some tempermental and overly sensitive celebrities. My point is that underneath it all there are some takeaways that will help us with our own lives. The bonus is that you’ll be entertained while you ponder your own views on love and marriage.

Listen to my full interview with Erica Kennedy here:

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