PYA members have been enjoying the new series of Dr Who. Many of our members have discussed at recent meetings how positive the programme has become now that there is a female Dr Who. This is a huge milestone for women overcoming barriers in the media industry. We can relate to this, as young people we often face barriers when trying to get our voices and opinions heard.
We recently invited Jodie Whittaker who is the new Dr Who to attend one of our PYA meetings. The idea was to ask her about what challenges she faced in becoming the first female Dr, how she overcame these challenges and what people’s responses were to her becoming the Dr.
We had a reply from Nikki Wilson, who is the producer for Dr Who and has worked closely with Jodie Whittaker. She agreed to attend a meeting to answer all of our questions.
Nikki explained that even though there had been some negativity towards the Dr being female, the positive responses outweighed them. She explained that Jodie Whittaker would not have been picked if she was not right for the role, and it became clear quickly that she was right. This is being reflected in social media responses, fan pages and reviews of the show. Focusing on the positive feedback rather than the negative allows you to focus on working towards your end goal.
We asked Nikki about the show tackling social issues and inclusivity. It is clear that this is changing as we now have a female Dr Who and we had Bill the companion who was part of the LGBT community. Nikki explained that this is something that the BBC feel strongly about, and will continue to work towards inclusivity in it shows.
As a result of meeting Nikki Wilson we as PYA feel that we can reflect on all of the good work we have done. We have received positive feedback over the years and feel empowered to continue to develop as a group. We look forward to achieving great things for our town and representing young people from Penarth.
There will always be challenges, but we will always work together to overcome them.
Thank you Nikki Wilson.
