Photographed by [Ian Morrison](https://www.instagram.com/imorrison/?hl=en).
The Lauren Iungerich-created series, which documents four South Los Angeles teenagers’ journey through the exciting, explorative, and oft-excruciating high school years, snaps an honest, heartfelt, and even humorous picture through a much-needed underrepresented lens. Characters Monsé Finnie, Cesar Diaz, Ruby Martinez Jr, Jamal Turner, and Jasmine Flores return for the third season to fanfare. Flaunt wonders what it means to work on a series that’s actively advocating less-amplified voices and diversity.
**Being a part of a show that resonates so well with audiences must be really rewarding, how do you relate to your character?**
I still think I am my character on so many levels; Jasmine lives inside of me so much. I can relate to being the class clown or trying to say a joke before I am the joke. So I feel the walls that she’s built up in order to not get hurt is something that I can very much relate to.
**With such a diverse community behind and in front of the camera, what does it mean to you to work on a show actively advocating for representation?**
I feel like we are speaking for an entire group of people, you know? We’re trying to work on a time where it’s not a rarity. But this is just our lives, we’ve been advocating this forever.
[Jessica Marie Garcia](https://www.instagram.com/jess_m_garcia/) wears [GENTLE MONSTER](https://www.gentlemonster.com/) glasses.
Photographed by [Ian Morrison](https://www.instagram.com/imorrison/?hl=en).
**What is most misunderstood about South Los Angeles?**
What’s so great about our show is that you’re not necessarily seeing stereotypes. You’re seeing so many different layers of characters. We’re leads in our own story, and we get to be goofy, we get to have heartaches and heartbreaks and losses and be in awkward situations without it having to be just because of our race.
**On a personal level, what motivates you?**
Our fans are just unbelievable and the amount of love, letters, and personal stories we get every single day on how they see their story, or can now overcome any situation because they’ve seen us do it, is overwhelming; it pushes us to want to be better.
**Of course, filming can be a super arduous process at times. What kind of activities do you do to unwind and decompress?**
Photographed by [Ian Morrison](https://www.instagram.com/imorrison/?hl=en).
A lot of casts will go to their trailers after a cut, but we don’t do that. We have a green room where we are always together between scenes. Either we’re working on scenes together or we’re like, ‘Oh my God how did that scene go for you?’ We always have each other to confide in so we never feel like a lone wolf on this journey together.
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See the other profiles on the cast of _On My Block_: [Sierra Capri](https://www.flaunt.com/content/sierra-capri-on-my-block), [Jason Genao](https://www.flaunt.com/content/jason-genao-on-my-block), [Diego Tinoco](https://www.flaunt.com/content/diego-tinoco-on-my-block), and [Brett Gray](https://www.flaunt.com/content/brett-gray-on-my-block)
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Flaunt Film Directed by: [Daniel Mayúgba](https://www.instagram.com/danny.mov/) & [Ryan Kevin](https://www.instagram.com/ryankevin/)
Director of Photography: [Isaiah Shinn](https://www.instagram.com/isaiahshinn/)
Camera: [Martin Gradek](https://www.instagram.com/citizen_xeno/)
Sound & Editing: [Timothy Huang](https://www.instagram.com/timo4041/)
Sound Assistant: [Sarah Peretz](https://www.instagram.com/sarah_peretz/)
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