Lilan Bowden on Life Lessons from Andi Mack: Stand Up for Your Ideals, Find Your Power and Be a Positive Role Model

Lilan Bowden was instantly smitten by Disney Channel’sAndi Mack and for three seasons she has embraced playing the free-spirited Bex Mack.

The series returned for its much-anticipated third and final season on Friday, June 21.

The show is about Andi Mack (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), her family and her two best friends Cyrus and Buffy, as they navigate middle school.

From the creator of Lizzie McGuire, we meet Andi as she comes to terms with the major news that Bex (Bowden), the girl she thought was her cool older sister, is actually her mother.

Andi Mack has been hailed for making history with the first Disney character to say, "I’m gay." In the monumental story arc, Andi’s friend Cyrus realizes he is gay and comes out to his friends. The series received a Peabody Award, Writer’s Guild Award nominations and a win at the GLAAD Awards.

In addition to acting and improv, Bowden is making her directorial debut in Becoming Eddie, the Asian-American comedy short film about a Korean-American boy growing up in the suburbs in the 1980s who makes a wish to be popular amid his mostly-white classmates.

But when he wakes up with the voice of his favorite foul-mouthed comedian, he must deal with the fame as well as the repercussions.

“The show Andi Mack has been a pretty wild adventure, but Peyton really feels like a family member to me,” Bowden exclusively told Parade.com.  “I know you don’t always get that when you sign onto a TV show, and I feel really lucky that we did. This has been a truly memorable experience.”

Yes. The cutest thing is during the most recent Mother’s Day she sent me a message “Happy Mother’s Day to my fake mother. I miss you, and I love you more than you’ll ever know.”  I’m going to get teary-eyed. I didn’t know that when I signed up for a TV show, I’d end up with a new family member, but we are clearly friends for life.

Do you feel motherly or sisterly toward Peyton and have you given her advice or about the business, acting, makeup, or anything else?

My connection to her came on so organically where I just feel like this was somebody that I have to protect and someone I feel so close and fond of, and I want her to do well, and I’m going to help guide her in any way I can. Peyton is representative of a new generation that has self-confidence in her identity in a way that I don’t know if I had coming up as an actor. She is a critical thinker, and she knows very much what she stands for and this started at an early age. So, that’s really incredible to see.

Related: Disney Star Christy Carlson Romano Brings Back the Iconic Girl Power Heroine in Kim Possible 

What do you especially enjoy about the show and its message?

I feel like so much of my story has been about learning to stand up for myself and learning to challenge ideals that don’t represent my philosophy. Or learning to challenge things that aren’t right. Something that I really admired about Peyton who is less than half my age is that she has that sense of identity, and she is willing to challenge creative questions or ideals that she doesn’t believe are right, and just being a part of a kid’s show, I feel like I’ve been able to see that, and it’s a very encouraging quality.

This sounds very empowering for girls and women.

Yes. I agree. I also feel that her generation isn’t taking this world for granted.  They know it’s malleable, and they know that they can make a difference, and I feel like, not just Peyton, but a lot of the kids on Andi Mack felt real…not only do they have a worldly sense about them of like, oh, there are problems in the world, and I want to change them, but they felt empowered to do so, so while I was teaching Peyton, I felt like I was also learning from her.

So, in the show, Andi finds out your character is her mom instead of her older sister.

I think it’s rare in children’s television to tackle more complicated issues like this, but I think it’s really a unique family dynamic. I think Andi Mack has shown how important it is to go ahead and present a complicated family story because so many people have come out to identify with it.

Please tell me more.

So many people were saying, “Oh, my gosh, that’s the story of my cousin, or that’s my story,” or they found something in this complicated family dynamic to connect to. A lot of young moms have reached out to me and said that our show has really given them a voice, and it’s brought a lot of comfort for them and their kids. These moms have said that this show humanizes how hard it is to be a single mom and that our show really depicts how hard it can be to be a mom in a way that kids can understand.

Related: Photos: Meet the Adorable and Talented Kids Competing on DWTS Juniors

What do younger people identify with in this show?

Well, for kids, I think it’s really important to address that not every kid comes from a nuclear family, and we don’t see too many examples of that on children’s television. I think we’re going to see more of that. For kids who don’t come from a nuclear family, they don’t have to have the same type of family that Andi Mack has, but I feel like a lot of them connect to the idea of feeling a little bit on the outside or feeling like their family is different and processing a lot of complicated feelings. So, Andi Mack is a way for them to connect and feel more okay with their unique circumstances.

There are older moms out there, blended families, and all kinds of family configurations these days, so your show helps us see the norm.

I agree. I feel that the more examples that we see on TV of different kinds of family structures, the more tolerance we’ll have in society, like for those structures. So not everyone is under the assumption that each child comes from a married couple.

Well, let’s talk about your sketch comedy.

So, I’m going to be appearing here and there. Now that I’m back in Los Angeles, I’m back to where I got started, which is live comedy. I am a performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, LA theaters, and that’s always been a big part of my path of being an actor, and it’s something I always come back to. I do a lot of improv comedy. This week, I’m doing a show that I’m super proud of called Asian AF, and it’s a show produced by my friend Will Choi, and it’s a variety show of all Asian American performers who do sketch comedy, improv, standup and musical comedy, and it sells out every month.

What is the project you are directing this summer?

I’m going to be directing my first short film called Becoming Eddie, which was written by my friend and longtime TV staff writer Ed Lee, and it’s a story about a Korean-American boy in the ‘80s, his childhood story. This boy is trying to assimilate better with his mostly white classmates and finds solace in standup comedian and pop culture and makes a wish to be like his favorite standup comedian and wakes up only being able to speak in that comedian’s jokes, and that wins him that popularity that he has been seeking, but not without consequences.

Ed Lee also has a strong TV connection.

Yes, he is a good friend and he has been a longtime TV staff writer. He worked on the Drew Carey Show. He worked on Are You There, Chelsea. Currently, he’s a professor at Emerson but is using his summer to create his own passion project.

Related: Gemma Chan Follows Her Heart in the Hilarious Romantic Comedy Crazy Rich Asians

In addition to a show like Andi Mack, the movie Crazy Rich Asians, and other recent projects, do you think that this helps people want to see and know more about Asian culture?

I think to have that Asian representation is helpful, not only for people who want to know more about different cultures but it’s helpful for the people who are Asian-American. When I go to Disney Channel fan events something that really affected me is I made eye contact with Asian-American moms and their daughters, and I could tell in some of the people who were waving back to me, the moms were getting misty-eyed, the moms were, and that made me misty-eyed as well.

What did it mean to you?

When I was a kid I didn’t have any role models in the media that were my culture. I can’t think of anybody, you know, so I feel like this kind of representation is so, so important for inclusivity and so important for the people who identify with being Asian-American.

How important is it to you, as a successful Asian-American career woman, to be a role model for girls and young women?

It’s so important for me in a way that I wasn’t expecting. Being on a Disney Channel show, specifically, felt very life-changing because my fan network base changed what felt like overnight, but something that makes me feel extra responsible is that my fans are mostly children and extremely impressionable with the media that they’re consuming.

Please tell me more about this.

I think about it every single time I post something on social media. I always want to be an example of somebody who is presenting good values, and who is comfortable in their identity. Especially because I’m female, I want to present myself as someone who’s comfortable in their body. I think being able to be on a kid’s show and being connected with youth culture has really opened my eyes to how much girls and women are objectified from a really early age and how much pressure is on them to feel like they have to keep up standards of beauty and not wanting to do anything that would make young girls coming into women feel bad about their bodies.

The final episodes of Andi Mack air on The Disney Channel on Fridays, at 8 p.m. ET.