Voices Worth Hearing: The Problems of Today's Kids in Teen TV Shows
How the lives of today's young people show up on screen.
Every adult was a teenager once. High school, exams, friends — and, behind it all, problems. But growing up could look different for every generation. Ever since the world moved into the little screen that barely leaves people's hands for hours at a time, being a teenager has changed — but only a little. The problems have mostly stayed the same.
On how film and television represent the pain and problems of today's teenagers — read on in this DeTalks article.
Adolescence (2025)
A Reddit user has described teaching in secondary schools in the north of England and called this show the most accurate depiction of an English school she'd ever seen on TV, saying she told her husband it was a 'trigger' and one of the reasons she left teaching.
Reddit user @decobelle
The British crime drama Adolescence has only four episodes, but it contains many realistic depictions of secondary school and its students. The plot opens with police breaking down the door of an ordinary family's home, whose 13-year-old son is suspected of a serious crime — stabbing a female classmate with a kitchen knife.
The show's realism is reflected in British news headlines about a rise in knife crimes committed by children. Concerned about this issue, screenwriter and co-creator Stephen Graham decided to create a similar project, where the perpetrator is a child barely 13 years old.
But the show isn't really about the murder itself, but about a possible desire to raise a hand against a girl driven by the toxic influence of social media and online misogynist culture. It's about excessive masculinity and the fear of being branded an 'incel' (involuntary celibate). It also touches more broadly on 'incel culture' — men who blame women for their own celibacy, which in turn feeds online misogyny (hatred of women).
Parents or teachers could help a teenager untangle this web of virtual problems before they grow into real ones, if only they understood what kids are going through. But much of it remains a mystery to adults.
In one scene, for instance, Inspector Bascombe's son opens his father's eyes to new concepts like 'incel culture' and the importance of emoji symbolism online. What's more, he explains the meaning behind the color of a heart emoji in comments. According to the boy, a red heart can mean love, purple can mean sex, yellow can mean interest, and pink can mean attraction, among other things.
Co-creator Jack Thorne has said that spending any time on forums like 4chan (an anonymous English-language website) or Reddit, or on most social media platforms, can quickly land you in some dark spaces,said co-creator Jack Thorne.
A global children's forum focused on social change around children's rights has flagged the danger of idealizing oneself online for teenagers. That need to 'look better' affects mental health, self-esteem, and relationships.
The forum called on companies to rethink content moderation, establish clear ethical principles for engaging with it, and reassess algorithmic recommendations, taking into account users' age and just how powerful the influence of 'random' content can be.
15-year-old actor Owen Cooper has reflected on playing Jamie, describing him as an ordinary teenager who's harassed on social media and, because of that, sinks into darkness, noting that some kids get their first phones at age seven — he got his at 11 or 12 — and that phone addiction really does set in during high school,muses 15-year-old actor Owen Cooper on his character, Jamie.
Eighth Grade (2018)
A Reddit user has said the film felt very honest, adding that as a high schooler, a lot of what it shows really resonated with them (and, they suspect, with many others too), and that they appreciated how uncomfortable and hard to watch it sometimes was, calling that an added layer of truthfulness.
Reddit user @Artiepops101
The title itself signals that this film is about middle schoolers. At its center is teenage girl Kayla, anxious and unsure of herself, who tries to build a better version of herself online through an inspirational YouTube vlog. The girl is going through puberty, feels awkward talking to boys, and still doesn't know who she wants to be.
Film critic Ann Cohen has described the best thing about Eighth Grade as the fact that it's really about nothing at all, noting that summarizing the plot means simply listing random facts of teenage life — school, home, the internet, self-reflection, cringing at moments from the day — yet each of these things feels immensely important to the person living through them,— responded film critic Ann Cohen.
While preparing to shoot the film, director Bo Burnham watched videos of teenagers on YouTube that never became popular, since they didn't get many likes or views. It was important to see kids who hadn't been heard, and to understand how they spoke haltingly, full of filler words like 'like' and 'um.'
Burnham has commented that watching these videos means watching someone try to express themselves and think out loud while their brain is still developing,commented the director.
Burnham found the actress meant to play Kayla the moment he saw 15-year-old Elsie Fisher.
The director has described her as the only one who felt like a shy kid pretending to be confident, while everyone else felt like a confident kid pretending to be shy,he said about her. In this, the actress resembled her character, since she too was trying to play a role and be someone she wasn't in real life. Fisher called Kayla's experience 'emotionally autobiographical,' since she felt the events on screen were realistic.
The film opens with Kayla's video 'Be Yourself.' Her monologue is full of filler words, and her expression betrays her insecurity. According to film critic Ann Cohen, you might think the director failed to give the actress dialogue and just let her improvise.
“In a particularly moving scene, Kayla scrolls through Instagram in bed, her acne lit up by images of perfect bodies blurred by flattering filters... Finding yourself while your body does all sorts of crazy things is hard in any era. But doing all of it under the watchful eye of a camera lens is an entirely contemporary problem,” Cohen wrote.
First Swallows (2019)
A YouTube user has said the social issues shown in the series are extremely important, and that everyone should be able to recognize them, in order to help someone who needs it.
YouTube user @suviika
This homegrown Ukrainian series lifts the curtain on adolescence in Ukraine. A new school year begins, but the school is shaken by an eleventh-grader's suicide. Among the teenagers themselves, problems like bullying, loneliness, suicidal thoughts, and struggling to accept themselves and their own orientation are widespread.
The show's creators used real character types in the plot with help from the civic organization La Strada, which provides psychological support. Its specialists shared anonymous stories that formed the basis for the show. According to showrunner Yevhen Tunik, First Swallows was 80% fictional drama, but 20% became documentary, drawing on real facts.
The team also visited Ukrainian schools to understand what teenagers are like today.
Tunik has described how the details of how young people communicate today mattered most to him, so that the show's language would feel real rather than dead, adding that children's behavior and actions also mattered — how categorical they are, whether they seek consensus when facing conflict — saying that, in effect, he was observing children's behavior,said Yevhen Tunik in an interview.
Indeed, many of the problems raised in the show touch on real issues facing today's teenagers. These include bullying and cyberbullying, distrust of adults, death and suicide, self-harm, and more.
According to Ukraine's Ombudsman, at the time the show came out in 2019, there had been 88 recorded child suicides. Since then, the number has only grown: 94 children died in 2020; 94 children in 2021; and in 2022, there were 127 suicide attempts. As of 2023, 116 child suicides had been recorded.
To help teenagers seek support, the credits at the start and end of every episode include a hotline number and the email address for La Strada's psychological support service. Following the show's release, the number of people reaching out to the organization grew sixfold.
Alona Kryvuliak, director of the National Hotlines and Social Assistance Department at the civic organization La Strada, has said that nearly one in five calls concerns self-harm, noting that teenagers take pride when a month or two passes after a call and they've stopped cutting themselves, adding that the organization strongly supports them, understanding just how frightening this dependency is, and that they build their own approaches to help people take the first step toward talking with their parents,said Alona Kryvuliak, director of the National Hotlines and Social Assistance Department at the civic organization La Strada.
Where to Turn for Help
National Hotline for Children and Youth, La Strada-Ukraine Civic Organization
- Phone: 0 800 500 225 (mobile or landline), 116 111 (mobile)
- Instagram: childhotline_ua
- Telegram: CHL116111
Support Line for Children and Parents, Voices of Children Charitable Foundation
- Phone: 0 800 210 106
Lifeline Ukraine Suicide Prevention Line
- Phone: 7333
Psychological Support Hotline for Adults and Children, People in Need International Humanitarian Organization
- Phone: 0 800 210 160
If you or someone close to you needs psychological help or a consultation, call any of these numbers. Support is provided confidentially, anonymously, free of charge, and around the clock.