http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/10/diversity_in_the_tv_writers_room_writers_and_showrunners_of_color_lag_far.html

In 2013, within two weeks of beginning the highly competitive Disney-ABC Writing Program, Natasha “Tash” Gray landed a position as a staff writer on the Disney Channel show Dog With a Blog. The long-running program, which each year accepts around eight individuals out of about 2,000 applicants, was one of several network-run fellowships Gray participated in, but the first one that resulted in a staff position. As anyone who’s been a staff writer for a TV show will tell you, being the new face is all about learning and adjusting to the writers’ room; it’s like being a rookie on a pro sports team. “You’re not expected to talk as much, you’re not expected to weigh in as much because you’re at the bottom,” said Gray. “You don’t have that much weight.” Still, Gray was able to get some of her ideas on the story board while working at Dog With a Blog, and received a paid assignment to write a script—a coup that not all of her program cohorts staffed on other shows pulled off.