For as long as I can remember, representation has always been huge for me and for good reason still is. With broader representation comes more opportunities to dream. But the more I think back to conversations like the one I had with my loved one, it’s not the importance of representation that jumps out at me, it’s the limitations it can create. The saying goes, seeing is believing. But when systemic discrimination and erasure prevent you from seeing the reality you so desperately want to believe in, what then? For many marginalized people, the lack of representation can be a stop sign, a glass ceiling signaling just how far we could go. And with stereotypical narratives constantly playing in the back-drop of everyday life, sometimes it is easier to see the world only as it is reflected back to us and not what it could be.