The many faces of family

  Groundbreaking series The Fosters centered a multiracial blended family and brought something new to the television landscape when it premiered in June of 2013. Created by Bradley Bredeweg and Peter Paige, the show followed married couple Stef and Lena Adams Foster (played by Teri Polo and Sherri Saum respectively) and their children, both biological and adopted. Through this family's stories, the ABC Family drama covered the realities of the foster care system, brought a slew of firsts when it came to LGBTQ representation, and covered ground that few other shows were at the time of its five-season run. […] In addition to that, Bredeweg and Paige wanted the show to feel as modern as possible, so Stef and Lena were an interracial couple. For Johnson, who has a multiracial family having adopted two children with her wife, there was an authenticity to writing The Fosters. “I related so much to the family. For me as a writer, I loved the opportunity to write about something that was true to my own life,” she shares.
  Stef being a white police officer married to a Black woman holds a different significance now, but over a decade ago, it was a decision made to take a look at the systems impacting this family. “It naturally became a part of the conversation that one of the moms would be inside the system in some way and you can see Stef bump up against stuff before we were talking about what we need to be talking about in this day and age,” Bredeweg explains.