Who Is Rachel Lindsay, First Black ‘Bachelorette’?

The Bachelorette, a spinoff of The Bachelor, will have its first African-American lead on the show, after its debut 14 years ago. Rachel L. Lindsay, a 31-year-old lawyer from Texas, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday night, where the decision was announced.

On the Kimmel show, she accepted a rose from the host, and said, “I’m ready to find love, find a husband.” She supplemented that with saying she was looking for a partner who was ready to start a family.

Check out the moment of reveal on Kimmel’s show below:

Lindsay received a law degree from Marquette University in 2011, and is a personal injury lawyer at Cooper & Scully, a Dallas firm.

Lindsay is a current contestant on The Bachelor, a show that aired on ABC in 2002. The Bachelorette aired a year later, also on ABC. In both shows, contestants compete for affections of the lead. Neither show has had a lead before now, though the shows have featured African-Americans and those of Asian and Iranian ancestry as contestants. They did not win the competitions. The Bachelor has featured one Hispanic man.

As the seasons have continued, public figures, news outlets, and fans have chastised the show for the omission. Whoopi Goldberg, an ABC star, criticized the show for the lack of diversity.

The final episode of the current season of Bachelor is set to air next month. The fact that Lindsay is setting out on a new hunt for love hints that the current season of Bachelor may not end well for her —an observation that Kimmel pointed out on his show. Lindsay responded to this suggestion with a shrug.

“We’re ready to get this started,” Lindsay said of the new season, and the next quest: “If you know anybody out there who needs to apply, sign up, go ahead and get it started.”

When she was asked on Good Morning America if she felt pressure from being singled out for being the first black lead, she said, “I don’t feel added pressure.”

“I’m honored to have this opportunity and to represent myself as an African-American woman and I just hope that people rally behind me like they did in Nick’s season,” she added, referring to Nick Viall, the current Bachelor lead. “Even though I’m an African-American woman, it’s not different from any other Bachelorette.”