This New Trans TV Series Looks Awesome!

If you are a fan of reality TV, I might just have a new show for you. Say hello to New Girls on the Block , a Discovery Life series about six trans friends living in Kansas City. It's a rare chance for trans people to be portrayed as normal people living normal lives. Plus, you know, reality TV!

New Girls on the Block premieres tonight, April 11th, and will be a five part series. It follows eight people, six of whom are trans women: Robyn, Macy, Kassidy, Chloe, Jaimie, and AiYana. The women deal with jobs, relationships, friendships and all the other things that make up normal people's lives. Though, considering they're on a reality show, presumably there will be just slightly more drama than your average person deals with. I'm just saying. I don't watch reality shows in order to see people make sensible decisions or to witness stable couples watching Netflix all night.

Still though, a TV program that shows trans women as just people living their lives is something that the world very much needs. All too often, whether it's in scripted series or on talk shows or other media appearances, the media acts as though a trans person's transition status or what surgeries they may or may not have had is the most interesting and important thing about them. This then creates a perception that being trans is all about transition, when of course trans people's lives are about any number of other things, like jobs and hobbies and family and friends. And showing transition as only one part of all that — as well as dispelling myths about what it's actually like — is important.

As Macy, one of the stars of the upcoming series, told GLAAD: All Access in a recent interview, "It would be nice if the media would portray our lives and not focus on surgeries and those type of things. ... And New Girls on the Block is a show like that."

Trans portrayals in the media have been increasing lately with shows like Orange Is The New Black on Netflix, which features Laverne Cox, and Transparent on Amazon, which follows a Los Angeles family as one of the parents transitions. But still, representation isn't what it could be.

So what is this new show going to be like? Well, here's a preview. And if you like what you see, consider tuning in. Support positive portrayals of trans people in the media! Support actual trans women on screen instead of male actors! Support reality TV branching out! Support all the things!