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Tiffany’s leadership skills, which are as potent as her convictions, automatically make her the group’s voice of reason. In episode one, Tiffany rescues a flustered Erin from a racist white man they encounter on their route. Then, after the girls arrive in 2019 and end up on the farm of STF Underground member Larry Radakowski (Nate Corddry), Tiffany singlehandedly creates a plan to return to 1988 and save two STF members who were previously killed. Later, the girls get stuck in 1999, and Tiffany uses a phonebook to track down the adult version of herself for help. This moment is brief, but it provides deep insight into her character and how she moves through the world.
Tiffany’s initiative reflects her independence and need for control. “There’s something about [her] that really yearns for this validation that…at some point can become isolating and then she seems to become comfortable in that isolation,” says Juilliard graduate Sekai Abenì, who plays adult Tiffany, in an interview with Teen Vogue. Tiffany’s actions also speak to how society teaches Black girls to internalize their struggles. This expectation to be self-reliant seems beneficial to building and mastering inner strength, but it can trigger unhealthy behaviors and damaging habits. According to Inger Burnett-Zeigler, a clinical psychologist at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, “The consequence is that strength often means not paying attention to feelings of distress, not paying attention to the impact of familial, relationship, and race-based trauma and how it impacts our thoughts, feelings, and behavior.” Black girls like Tiffany can certainly be strong and tough, but these positive traits are too often weaponized against them.
When Tiffany meets the adult version of herself in episode six, she’s disappointed. Adult Tiffany, now a DJ who still lives in their hometown of Stony Stream, was expelled from MIT and is dating a skateboarding slacker. She also has a contentious relationship with her mom, who hid the fact that Tiffany was adopted. Young Tiffany thinks adult Tiffany embodies a lesson in wasted potential; Adult Tiffany tries to make her understand the freedom of rejecting oppressive societal and cultural demands. “You can move through this faster than I did. I want to give that to you,” adult Tiffany later explains. However, 12-year-old Tiffany refuses to accept this gift. Their clashing views on adulthood expose a larger truth about the staggering expectations that our white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, as aptly coined by bell hooks, forces on young Black women. Tween Tiffany measures her life in accolades, but adult Tiffany wants her to slow down and just enjoy being a kid.
In a society molded by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, self-worth is falsely equated with productivity, and Black children aren’t seen as innocent. The adultification of Black girls, which can be traced back to our country’s legacy of racism and chattel slavery, is directly connected to the stereotype of the “strong Black woman.” This form of dehumanization equates resilience to indestructibility, further perpetuating mental health stigmas. Speaking to Good Morning America, writer, performance artist, activist, and The Nap Ministry founder Tricia Hersey explained why this stereotype negatively affects Black women’s mental health: “[It] allows so much time for abuse and manipulation, for not resting, for burning yourself out.” Tiffany’s determination is commendable and fuels her problem-solving skills, but her single-minded focus paves the way for future conflict.
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