The Staying Power of Raven Symoné
It started when I heard she was married. In June of 2020, Raven-Symoné Pearman, and her now-wife Miranda Mayday, graced my Instagram feeds in Amazon veils and designer sweatsuits, announcing that they’d been married while eating lots of fried oysters in Debbie Allen’s backyard. I was instantly curious (and just a little obsessed) about this new chapter of Raven’s life. I wanted to know everything — how long had they been together? Where did they meet? What was their interior design aesthetic? (You know, all of the obvious concerns.) For a while, I found little to nothing. However, a few months later, the couple fulfilled a nosy fan’s dream with a joint YouTube channel titled “8 PM.”
Now, I’m no stranger to keeping up with the child stars of my day. If you give me a Miley update, I’m all ears. If you update me on Lindsay’s current whereabouts, I’m into it. However, there was something special about my almost magnetic connection to Raven almost 17 years after I’d first learned her name. So, I began to wonder (hello, Carrie Bradshaw); How does one explain the staying power of miss Raven-Symoné?
I started at the beginning. Or, at least, my beginnings with Raven as someone born in 2001 (a good 10 years into Raven’s incredible career). Of course, this led me straight to Raven Baxter of Disney Channel’s That’s So Raven (2003-2007). This was a character full of unabashed confidence, equipped with an impressive ability to accomplish whatever she set her mind to (all while dressed in the upper echelons of late 90s and early 2000s fashion.) She went ahead at full force, even when she was unsure, and stopped at nothing to help the people she loved or to stand up for what was right. Do you remember that Liz Ania scene that was making the rounds on TikTok? Beautifully funny, but was actually a scheme that Raven came up with to protect her father’s job after she had a vision of him being fired. What about the “That’s So NOT Raven” episode in which Raven criticizes unhealthy beauty standards in the fashion industry? She was hilarious with her one-liners down pat — but she was also refreshing and honest when others were not. It wasn’t long until I realized that all of these characteristics I was associating with Raven Baxter could easily transfer to my next encounter with Raven-Symoné: her two-movie run as Galleria Garibaldi in The Cheetah Girls.
Raven Baxter’s response to her favorite fashion magazine photoshopping her body in “That’s So NOT Raven” is almost identical to Galleria’s response to Jackal Johnson’s attempts to completely rebrand The Cheetah Girls for monetary gain. Where Raven fully believes that she can save her dad’s career as Liz Ania, Galleria fully believes that entering a singing contest in Barcelona will change The Cheetah Girls’ lives. Is it just happenstance that Raven’s Disney characters — ones that kids would watch and learn from on weeknights at 8/7 Central – share these naïvely positive, strong-willed qualities? I doubt it. After all, Even Stevens and Kim Possible star-turned-YouTuber Christy Carlson Romano (or CCR, if you will) distinctly remembers Raven-Symoné and her family ensuring that the actress’ name was included in her Disney Channel sitcom. A laudable presence and long-lasting legacy, it seems, have always been on Raven’s mind.
Now, what about Raven’s “role” as a host on ABC’s The View? Well, according to Raven, this career move came from her desire to help the world (and herself) realize that she can come up with things to say on her own. Even if she made mistakes or wasn’t “funny” or said “the wrong thing,” her stint on The View was a way to step into adulthood and step away from reliance on scripts and studio audiences. Honesty, forging ahead without fear, speaking up for what you believe in (even if others don’t necessarily agree) — haven’t we seen all of these characteristics before? Is it an accident that Raven, in her most authentic form, approaches opportunities with the same tenacity and values as both of her beloved, fictional characters? Or, wait — did both of Raven’s beloved, fictional characters approach life in the same manner as her?
CCR made it clear; Raven was looking to leave a legacy and, as the first black actress to have her own sitcom on the Disney Channel, why wouldn’t she? For her to inject the best parts of herself into her most memorable characters is not only a genius career move but could be a huge reason why 2000s babies (like myself) still adore her. Now, as I eagerly follow Raven and Miranda’s rapidly growing YouTube channel, I realize that Raven’s ability to stick around comes from a comforting promise to evolve but never change. Whether she was having psychic visions, appearing on daytime television to discuss Trump’s presidency, or sitting in front of a camera with her wife to discuss relationships, sexuality, and childhood traumas; Raven was Raven, and she was awesome.
