Lauren Bloom/Leyla Shinwari
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Lauren Bloom/Leyla Shinwari |
| Alternative name(s): | Leyren |
| Gender category: | F/F, femslash |
| Fandom: | New Amsterdam |
| Canonical?: | Yes |
| Prevalence: | Moderately Popular |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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Lauren Bloom/Leyla Shinwari is a femslash pairing in the New Amsterdam fandom. Their canon relationship lasted from season three until the end of season four.
Canon
Leyla Shinwari joined the show in season three episode, "Safe Enough", and clashed with Lauren Bloom in their first few scenes together when Leyla identified a patient was in distress and helped to diagnose her. It was revealed soon after that Leyla was an attending physician in Pakistan, but could not continue her work in the USA as her license was not recognised.
Initially friends, Lauren helped Leyla when she realised she was living in her car, with Leyla eventually moving in with Lauren. Soon after, a romantic relationship began.
Fandom
Lauren/Leyla are a reasonably popular pairing in the New Amsterdam fandom and there has been a lot of discussion about their relationship on social media. Tumblr, in particular, has a lot of GIF sets of the pairing. On Archive of our Own, New Amsterdam has a fairly small fandom, at 600 works in September 2023, but 163 of those were tagged with Lauren/Leyla.
LAUREN BLOOM LOOKING AT LEYLA SHINWARI LIKE SHE’S EVERYTHING GOOD AND JUST AND TRUE IN THE WORLD AND EVERY HARDSHIP SHE’S EVER SURVIVED AND ACHING JOURNEY SHE’S SAW THROUGH BY THE SKIN OF HER TEETH WERE WORTH IT BECAUSE THEY LEAD HER TO WHERE SHE WAS MEANT TO BE, BY LEYLA’S SIDE-- ginjointsintheworld, 2021 [1]
Lauren and Leyla broke up at the end of season four, following Lauren paying a bribe for Leyla to get a placement at New Amsterdam. The way their relationship ended and the show-runners' confirmation that there would not be any reconciliation in season five, was disappointing to many fans.
Just read that the New Amsterdam writers confirmed Leyla and Lauren are done. What was even the point? Like... if you were just going to sabotage the entire relationship, why even bring Leyla on to the show and give fans hope?-- flurry-of-beaus-pop-pop, 2022 [2]
Fans were especially upset that two interracial relationships (Max Goodwin/Helen Sharpe being the other relationship) were ended by the end of season four/beginning of season five. Many fans discussed particularly how the story-lines leading up to the break-ups were badly written and that both women of colour, Leyla and Helen, went on to be painted in a negative light in canon when they were mentioned in subsequent episodes.
The showrunner just confirmed that Lauren and Leyla are over so basically all that bullshit was for nothing. They forced Lauren into Leyla’s life, made Leyla completely dependent on her and then instead of just ended things with that stupid ass bribe and letting them both move on they gave us this roundabout bullshit, villainized Leyla to make it look like she was using Lauren and it’s literally all for nothing. It’s giving ‘pawn in the white women journey of self discovery’ for me. This plus the way they treated Helen is only confirming what I thought for a while, which is that the people behind the show have zero regard for their characters of color. I honestly wish I had never watched this show.-- anonymous, 2022 [3]
Common Tropes in Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Example Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanfic
Fanart
Fanvids
GIF sets
- You Had Me At Hello [2] by ginjointsintheworld
- after plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own [3] by laurenbloomsource
Other Fanworks
(filk songs, felt dolls, graphic novels, cookies, etc.)
Archives and Communities
Other Fannish Resources
(Rec Lists, Big Bangs, Thing-a-thons, Holiday Exchanges, wiki links, etc.)