This is why I am grateful to America's Next Top Model

I have been having marathon events of the shows Parks & Rec and Veronica Mars. While I've seen both shows before, I just can’t help it. They’re so good. While I was on my latest episode of VM I thought to myself, “Wow, there aren't very many shows like this.” Usually all female-heavy shows are doing something ridiculous, you know, like getting pregnant at 16 or trying to flatly be sexy. I’m just going to say it: there needs to be more female-empowered shows (okay so any gender-empowered shows).

I am not a feminist by any means. I don’t claim to be because I’m not sure what doing so would mean and frankly I haven’t had the time or desire to look into it. All I know is I want basic opportunities for women equal to that of men. The way I justify it is how would I want my future daughters to view a subject or be treated? So when I turn on the TV and find out that 30 Rock has finished and Parks and Rec doesn't get the attention it deserves, I get a little peeved.

The cancellation of VM back in 2007 broke my heart. I was obsessed with the show. It was the first show that I truly loved. I fell upon it by accident. I think I was just watching an episode of America’s Next Top Model and saw a commercial for it. Oh the irony of watching ANTM. I was only in 7^th grade back in 2004 when it started and seeing a girl in high school who solved crimes and could figure her own stuff out was intriguing. I went from wanting to be the next top model to wanting to work as a detective.

While I’m not going to be a detective at all because my sense of observation is pretty weak-sauce, at least the show took a young impressionable viewer from wanting to work in a cut-throat industry where looks are everything to wanting to be a sassy, smart, snarky P.I. I would hope that the male viewers also liked it and felt like they could accomplish their goals too. I mean, the shows we are regurgitating to young boys are shows like Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory which don’t bode well.

I was lucky enough to stumble onto VM when I was young, but I don’t know how lucky others were. And while you shouldn't blame everything on the media, I do think that there should be a push for less sex and violence on TV and more shows that let the viewer feel like they can relate to or strive to be better. At the very least we could promote shows that we have no shame in watching and do away with those that focus on stereotypes and negativity.