Top 10 Awesome Mindy Kaling Moments

If you’ve seen the third season of The Mindy Project, you know exactly what we’re talking about. Wreath Witherspoon is a Christmas Wreath adorned with pictures of the “Legally Blonde” star. It was an immediate hit with fans, spawning a plethora of DIY recreations. Because of this, it quickly became one of the most memorable moments of the show. After all, it is the nicest thing in Danny’s apartment. But did you know that in real life, Kaling gifted a version of Wreath Witherspoon to its namesake? That’s right. In 2015 Kaling made the gift in light of Witherspoon’s Oscar nomination. How awesome is their friendship?

These days, it’s hard not to get addicted to celebrity Twitter. Well, we’ve got your next fix. Mindy’s feed is the perfect combination of poignant and hilarious. She rants about “Game of Thrones”, supports her friends’ projects, and even comments on the oddly sexual artwork hanging in her hotel room. You’ll fall in love with her admiration for Malala Yousafzai, and her friendships with her co-stars. Since Kaling is a new mom, our fingers are crossed that baby pictures are on the way! There’s something for everyone on her feed, and you could easily scroll for hours.

Mindy Kaling is a refreshing presence on screen because her look isn’t the one we’re used to seeing when it comes to leading ladies. She embraces her appearance and acknowledges that putting such a huge emphasis on women’s bodies shouldn’t be normalized. She has the perfect perspective, and has been quoted as saying that she’s totally fine with identifying as “cute and chubby”. In a world where women are constantly pressured to look and act a certain way, Kaling’s confidence and self-acceptance is not only a breath of fresh air, but an inspiration to women of all shapes and sizes.

At the Sundance Film Festival’s “Serious Ladies” panel in 2015, Mindy Kaling offered many inspiring views on reproductive rights, being marginalized, and being a role model for young girls. During a discussion with fellow panelists Kristen Wiig, Lena Dunham and Jenji Kohan, she spoke on the topic of the young fans who look up to her, and offered some words of inspiration for them. This insightful advice is exactly why it’s so important to have diverse representation in the media we consume, and Mindy Kaling has become emblematic of a move in the right direction.

As the world becomes more progressive, we learn that the term family has many definitions. Even before she became pregnant, Kaling felt a strong need for motherhood. She was very close with her mother and craved to recreate that bond. She said, "I would love to be married. But it’s not a necessity like the way that I feel I need and want to have children". When the news broke that she was pregnant, many media sources waited her to reveal who the father was, but she never did. She now has a beautiful baby girl, and notably left the father off of the birth certificate, embracing single motherhood.

Diversity in the media is possible because of people like Mindy Kaling. However, there comes a point where we focus on the diversity and not on the art being created. As Kaling notes, straight white men aren’t asked the kind of questions she is asked on a daily basis. These questions are important, but focusing on differences and labels does nothing to put the people in question on equal ground. She is proud of who she is and who she represents. However, Kaling wants to compete directly with those straight white men, and she has proven time and time again that she can.

So often, women are taught to shrink down, apologize, and ask permission. Kaling, however, refuses to be talked over. Because of that strength, she inspires many women in male-dominated careers to follow suit. For example: Kaling’s fellow “Office” cast member, Jenna Fischer. Fischer once asked Mindy for advice about being taken seriously as an equal in the male dominated writer’s room on the show. Kaling’s response was, “‘If you can get them to yell at you, then you know that they’re treating you like an equal and not like a girl”. Fischer took her advice, and loved the results!

Would you ever guess that Kelly Kapoor had such a large influence on some of the most memorable moments on “The Office”? Mindy Kaling directed the episodes “Body Language” and “Michael’s Last Dundies”, served as an executive producer for the last couple seasons, and wrote some of the show’s best episodes, including “The Dundies” and the iconic “Niagara”, co-written with Greg Daniels. The episode “Diwali” even featured her real-life parents. Kaling left a deep imprint on the show, paving the way for her eventual position as showrunner on “The Mindy Project”.

Before she found fame, Kaling and friend Brenda Withers wrote and starred in the Off-Broadway play, Matt & Ben, in which Kaling played Ben Affleck. The play asked the question many had in 1997: how did two Hollywood unknowns come up with the award-winning “Good Will Hunting”? Kaling and Withers comedically suggest the script fell right into the actors’ laps- from their apartment ceiling. Critics praised the duo for their witty jokes and characterizations. “The Office”’s Greg Daniels saw the play and later hired Mindy to write and act for the NBC show. It proved to be a great beginning to the rich tapestry of Kaling’s career.

Mindy Kaling is a trailblazer, there’s no doubt about it. Among her many accomplishments, she was the first and only Indian-American woman to star in and run her own network show, as of 2014. She was featured in Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2013 and once told Reese Witherspoon, “I’ve never had anything that I didn’t create for myself”. Kaling paves the way for minority women every day, by showing off her multifaceted talents. Because of people like her, we are a step closer to living in a world where diverse representation is the norm and not the deviation.
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