JANE BY DESIGN * ALL AMERICAN MUSLIM

Jane By Design - This is a new TV show on the ABC Family channel. It airs on Tuesday nights, and after only two episodes, I think it's my current favorite show, even more than The Middle and Modern Family. Let alone the Thursday line-up. Jane is a high school girl who loves fashion, and persuades her counselor to let her have an internship. She mistakenly interviews for the wrong position, and is offered a permanent job as the assistant to a difficult buyer/stylist at a designer's studio. She lives with her older brother who's out of work, and they are about to lose their house, so she takes the job and rushes back and forth from High School to job. The only person who knows everything about her situation is her guy friend from school. To top it all off and make this really fun, the guy who she's been crushing on since 5th grade is starting to take notice of her, and the cutest designer at the studio is hot for her. It's a sweet, watchable show. I want to be Jane!

All American Muslim - This TLC reality show just wrapped up its first season. At the beginning, I watched because it takes place in my hometown of Dearborn, Michigan, and my mom still lives in the house where I grew up, so it's still home to me. Then I started watching because it's a pretty good reality show. The people who agreed to do this show let the cameras into their lives in an honest way, and show that to be Muslim is similar to what it means to be any religion nowadays. These people are living the American Dream, proud to be Americans, and are not really different from any of the rest of us. Except that they are very Dearborn. I like to think that the Dearborn is out of me, whatever that means. Ultimately, I think it means that its less about Dearborn and more about my escape from the old hometown.