Top 10 Reasons Women in the Entertainment Industry Shouldn't Try to Be "One of the Boys"

This week's top 10 is sort of a pep talk to myself, but hopefully it will also be helpful to other women pursuing a career in comedy.

In college, I was a Film & TV major, but I focused my attention on writing, and by my junior year I was dead set on writing TV sitcoms. I still haven't made it to a TV writers' room, but I've taken many, many writing classes that try to structure themselves like a writers' room. I've always loved that environment, but it wasn't until recently that I started analyzing it.

The first moment that got me thinking about this was at my writing group in January. About an hour before the meeting, I had received a call from my ex-husband, which was thoroughly unpleasant. When I got to the meeting (which was made up of me and a bunch of dudes), I was clearly stressed, so they asked what was wrong. I quickly recounted the phone call and one of the guys looked at me very strangely and said, "You're still such a girl." I asked what he meant. "You know, in here we're all just writers, I've never thought of you as a girl before. But... you're such a girl." Umm... okay?

Around the same time, I began taking improv classes at iO West (totally recommended, by the way). For my first three levels, I had female teachers and loved the classes. But, now I'm in level 4, and my teacher is a guy. The first class with a male teacher felt so weird to me. I had my guard up and I didn't know why.

After some reflection, I figured it out. In a class structured like a comedy writers' room, I had always subconsciously felt pressure to be "one of the boys." Based on books by women writers, articles, statistics and rumors, I guess it was just ingrained in my head that in order to be accepted as a comedy writer, I would have to be like the men. With my female improv teachers I didn't put my guard up, because I didn't think they would judge me for being female; however, when I had a male teacher, I instinctively wanted to make him feel like I was like him, one of the guys, and not such a girl.

This personal revelation was huge for me. I am a girl! It's not a secret, so I shouldn't try to hide it. Here are the Top 10 Reasons Women in the Entertainment Industry Shouldn't Try to Be "One of the Boys":

10) You're not fooling anybody.

9) If it's a boys club, and you're there, then it's not really a boys club anymore. It's just a club. You're already in. Congratulations!

8) "Women will be boys," isn't a thing people say. Let's keep it that way.

7) When someone hires you to work on a show, it's probably because they like your "voice." Your voice is not that of a man, so don't change it.

6) "You're such a girl," shouldn't be insulting. Don't let it be.

5) Trying to be what you think someone wants you to be, instead of just being yourself, is exhausting.

4) Comedy works best when it's truthful, and a woman trying to not be a woman isn't being truthful.

3) Writers' rooms need different perspectives, including female perspectives.

2) Women are not boys. That's not just okay, it's fantastic!

1) Even though it hurts to hear that women aren't funny (why do people still say this?!), the way to challenge that is to be women who are funny, not to be women-pretending-to-be-men who are funny.

Can you think of other reasons to not try to be "one of the boys"? Leave them in the comments!