What’s Your Money Story?
One of my first students at Pockets Change told me, “If I don’t have a plan for my money, my money’s gonna have a plan for me.”
It’s a simple statement that also happens to be some of the best financial advice I’ve ever heard.
We start forming relationships with money between 3-7 years old; while we’re listening to Elmo sing about getting new shoes or sneaking to the doorway as our parents watch Succession. Fictional characters’ wants and needs fill more than screens; they shape our financial narratives.
Across storylines, characters exemplify money personalities in action. Every iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles spends their (literally) hard fought loot on pizza, but each member embodies distinct habits & tendencies. That’s why our multigenerational Hip Hop & Finance programs start with finding your money personality. We use a simple, 2 question money personality quiz to determine one of four money personalities. The questions are rooted in financial psychology and behavioral economics.
Through money personalities, Students, teachers, and family members of all ages have been able to forgive themselves and move forward. The 4 personalities are full of relatable tendencies that make sense of the seemingly irrational ways we deal with money. Do you only buy things on sale? You may be a complicator! Do you end up blowing the big check you just got because it was from an Evil Corporation? You might be a money monk.
The money havers and knowers love telling young adults about the necessity and urgency of making a financial plan. Set long term goals, invest for your future, make a vision board, max out your 401k, build generational wealth.
Save, invest, and protect the right percentages of your wages, advocate for raises, stick to your plan, and everybody will be wealthy and we’ll have world peace. Do the right thing? Spike Lee made a film about how easy it is to do that.
It’s why many officials want financial education taught as a part of math class. Hard work + discipline = success… except when it doesn’t.
There’s no mathematical or magical formula for perfecting our finances. Budgets are personal and cash flow projections are literal guesses. If all that seems fake, and made up, good! So is money.
Take a breath. [Editor's note: ‘take a breath’ is the definition of inspiration]
Money is about more than numbers, it’s a tool to create change. As storytellers, content creators, and community builders we have a tremendous power to deconstruct money myths and cultivate empathy for the financial exploitation, discrimination, and oppression young adults are being called to navigate.
Our research partner, Knology, found Pockets Change’s approach highly effective in building financial resilience through hip hop pedagogy. Through shared practices and resources we have meaningful money conversations across mediums.
Storytelling creates a transformative space for real, open, and empowering conversations about money. As our students explore their own relationships with money, multimedia creates paths to overcome obstacles, encourage empathy, engage curiosity, and envision possibilities.
Our shared money stories shift narratives that have held back our communities for generations. We encourage content creators and program leaders to reflect on where financial themes could enrich their next project.
Bring Money Stories to Life with Actionable Insights:
Expand storytelling beyond the “middle–class centric” values and assumptions too often depicted. Explore the breadth and depth of how our relationships with money show up.
Share empowering stories of navigating uncertainty and enhancing financial wellbeing even when money is scarce or employment precarious.
Promote self-acceptance and efficacy with the message that “whatever it is you have; these are the ways that you’re able to save and this is what you’re able to do to grow.” As one individual told us, the program approach was valuable because it taught youth how “not to have money control you.”
Media’s Role in Shaping Your Perception of School
Your snooze your alarm for the last (and fifth) time before finally lugging yourself out of bed to get ready for first period. You have an AP test today you’ve barely studied for after getting home late from volleyball practice, a sport you’re only doing so you can write a college essay about your budding athleticism. Speaking of, applications are due this week and you need to recount every instance you’ve done something meaningful in the hopes that your accomplishments will be niche enough to get you an acceptance.
You’re walking to campus, weaving through the heavy press of people all trying to get somewhere, probably to their lectures that started 15 minutes ago because contrary to what your high school teachers told you, professors don’t care about attendance. You’re left to your devices which is why your last meal was an expired bowl of ramen noodles and you forgot about today’s club meeting. Maybe if you budget your time right (consult your local business major) you can still make it to the party tonight with all of your friends who insist going out is what college is about!
High school and college, both critical points in the lives of any young adult and yet simultaneously the most confusing of years. You have two goals that seem irreconcilable - socially developing and thriving and building an impressive academic repertoire. You are stuck on this seesaw of life, trying to balance and stay steady but you always find yourself tipping towards one end or the other.
Finding this balance between two equally important aspects of life is a challenge adults haven’t mastered quite yet. With the heavy presence of social media, TV and film, this pressure worsens. Youth feel the need to fit into the mold of a high school or college student that the media they so heartily consume has dictated to be true.
Movies that come to mind include “Legally Blonde” and “Pitch Perfect” both of which portray an unrealistic and damaging view of what it means to be a college student. In the former, Elle Woods gets into Harvard Law School with minimal qualifications and in the latter being part of the acapella club supersedes all other areas of life including academics and family.
These are two of many examples where media creates unrealistic and unattainable expectations for budding students or it narrows its focus on either the social or academic aspect of school, but never both in conjunction. All of this may contribute to the declining mental health and increased stress of students who feel cheated out of their life experiences when they arrive at school and find it to be nothing like what the media predicted.
The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments reported that 44% of college students across 133 campuses reported feeling depression, 37% had high anxiety and 15% said they considered suicide. Creators can do their part to shift this narrative and produce content that alleviates students of the unfair or unrealistic expectations they believe to be associated with school.
Student #1, a senior at UCLA, looks back on what defined her high school experience and what served as the unrealistic standard she tried to uphold in college. Others students shared that high school involved playing a sport, after school activities and endless outings with friends but Student #1’s emphasis on stress stood out.
“I view [high school] as being unreasonably stressed about college and always going through weird character-developing moments to help you figure out who you are and who your friends are. ”
While the awkwardness of discovering oneself is a normal progression of high school, Student #1 explained that many TV shows made her believe that she could only embark on this self-discovery journey if the things she experienced were extreme, dramatic or all-consuming. She referenced TV shows like Euphoria, Gossip Girl, the OC and 90210 for creating scenarios that would never happen in real life and for fueling her disappointment when high school and college inevitably weren’t like that. It prompted her to wonder if she was forgoing a good high school experience or not preparing enough for college and life beyond.
Euphoria was celebrated for its honest portrayal of drug addiction amongst teens but it also bookmarked every high school experience with drugs, sex and crazy parties, something Student #1 felt shouldn’t be favored over showing an ordinary, awkward and sometimes boring but equally formative time in high school.
Student #2, a sophomore at UCLA agreed and said high school was more about “being socially awkward and having bad friends.”
She adds that TV shows also rely too heavily on stereotypes of high school students and cliques that can perpetuate toxic environments in real life. Rather than focus on unrealistic and isolating tropes like “the jocks” or “the popular kids” or “the nerds” she encourages the media to portray high school as a safe place to explore oneself and be ordinarily extraordinary.
The media has been criticized for this in the past and one of the underlying problems is casting. Teen characters are often cast as unrealistically and stereotypically attractive adults rather than teenagers. Myrna Hart, researcher at UCLA Center for the Study of Women, says this feeds into a larger issue about body-image, role models and perception of age.
“Viewers never really know what an older woman, say 50 or 60 or 70, should realistically look like,” she says in an interview with Teen Vogue. “This precludes women from having any positive role models for aging.”
A 20 or 30 year old adult’s appearance is fully developed and stays the same, which doesn't reflect the fluctuation of features that teenagers experience. If a character that a young viewer idolizes lacks the imperfect skin, changing weight and messy hair typical of a pubescent teen, there is a harmful disconnect from reality.
PhD and clinical psychologist Barbara Greenberg in an interview with Teen Vogue says that this "leads to all kinds of body-image and social-comparison issues and we know that social comparison can be a thief of joy.”
Students #1 and #2 push for more teenagers being cast as teen characters and for more ordinary and simple depictions of the high school experience. They believe there is value in capturing the quiet but important moments of self-discovery and identity exploration too.
The portrayal of college students in the media also creates a heavy disconnect between the screen and real-life. The use of stereotypical characters and romanticized plot lines contributes greatly to the schism students feel between being social and academic and their overall fear and uncertainty about the future.
When asked, students insisted that the media taught them college was not just about doing everything, but being good at everything too. It was about partying, drinking, having a friend group but also going to all your lectures, getting all As, volunteering, doing internships and holding board positions in clubs.
An example of one extreme is the TV show Girl Meets World where students abandon academic pursuits and treat the classroom like an open forum to discuss friendships, family and identity formation. On the other end, shows like Big Bang Theory show characters whose every aspect of life is defined by school and work. The show demeans characters who have aspirations and interests outside of academia and STEM.
Student #3, a sophomore early in her time at UCLA agrees it is important to be academically successful but wishes that the media portrayed academic interests in a more holistic manner.
“Doing good academically is actually important. In movies the people who work hard in school are made fun of but in reality it’s so important”
On the other hand, Student #4, a senior ending her time at UCLA, says she found college did embody some of the social stereotypes she saw on TV.
When asked what she sees as a typical college student she says, “it is a greek life college kid who focuses on classes but also goes out on weekends and is pretty lazy other than that.”
The conflicting opinions of students proves that yes, college life looks different for everybody but more importantly, that the media doesn’t show the importance of balancing both lifestyles, of pursuing a social life without forgoing an academic one and vice versa. This well rounded reality is a hard one for students to accept when they don’t have a clear and accurate example of it in the media.
Student #5, a senior who is the voice of many misrepresented students, wishes the media was instead honest about school and life falling somewhere in the middle.
“I wish the media addressed the way everyone wants college or their lives to look awesome and as good as possible and showed the moment of finally talking about how it isn’t perfect”
It is important to both study and socialize but there are healthier and more effective ways to maximize your time in college. The key is not falling into an extreme category of just partying and drinking or dedicating all your time to school and studying, rather structuring your time in college can help you balance it all.
The Jed Foundation encourages students to order their priorities, show up to class as much as possible, join clubs and socials and expect the path to be imperfect.
“Adjusting to college life isn’t easy for anyone, but in time you’ll figure out what works best for you,” the Jed Foundation says. “And, at any time along the way, you can reach out for the support you need and deserve.”
College is also a time of struggle for students discovering not just their academic interests but who they are and who they want to be. According to social comparison theory, people, especially students, determine their personal, social and academic worth and interests by comparing themselves to others. In fact, some peers are more likely targets of this attention than others based on their visibility and levels of perception.
With today’s youth easily and constantly perceiving television and film, it is no wonder students look toward their screen-counterparts for how to behave, look and act. Social media has also greatly contributed to this kaleidoscope of perception. With influencers and celebrities up close and personal, it’s easier for consumers to think their life should mimic theirs. As a result, average consumers build a warped idea of wealth and success but also a narrow idea of what it means to socially and academically thrive.
Some influencers are not in school and they find happiness in the daily content they post. Other influencers are in school but also balancing brand deals and red carpet events. Social media’s persuasive nature can convince impressionable youth that their success should look identical to that, that their lives need to be parallel to Charli Damelio’s or Kim Kardashian’s. In reality, social and personal success is multifaceted and a college student with 0 Instagram followers can be just as happy and prosperous.
With self-development falling directly into the hands of what we see in the media, it is more important than ever to abandon outdated and damaging stereotypes in favor of honest and authentic representation and to offer support to students who need it.
Student #4 encourages the industry to “ talk more about the mental health aspect of the high school/college experience” while Student #5 wants them to address “more issues with eating disorders and people trying to be stereotypically skinny and perfect.”
For kids approaching the milestone of high school and college, these changes could alter their perception of what it means to be a successful and happy student.
As Student #2 so aptly says, school is not a race to being the most beautiful, most successful, most intelligent, it is about learning something meaningful every step of the way.
“It is about preparing for life. Educate yourself and find how to problem solve in academics and your social life. Have fun and experience things to learn the correct way to respond and to be happy. ”
Rethinking the Digital Detox: How Platforms Can Help Us Achieve Media Balance
I first learned about the concept of digital detox from a YouTube video in which a young tech executive documents his experience with “dopamine fasting”. I came across this concept again in a book I read earlier this year titled The Information Diet, which outlines steps people can take to orient their consumption of media in a healthier direction. While the associations with the terms “detox” or even “diet” are problematic, both properly shed light on this idea that to be healthy media consumers we need to regulate the kinds and amounts of content we consume each day.
The term “digital balance” is much improved because it presents this idea of portion-control and variety in media consumption without the connotation that it ought to be drastic, short-lived, and unsustainable. In a paper out of the Atlantic Marketing Journal, researchers discuss the challenge of navigating our modern media landscape as a “balancing act”, which requires us to understand the nature of different media and their implicit motivations. In the broadest sense, this balance involves three main categories: entertainment-based media, educational media, and screen-free media, each of which offers a distinct form of value to consumers. And even as the lines between entertainment and education continue to blur, with the so-called rise of infotainment, these categories can help us—and our kids especially—to become more mindful media consumers, aware of the importance of variety and apportionment of digital content.
As communications scholar Neil Postman suggests, as the availability of digital media increases, and as this media becomes increasingly entertainment-driven, it becomes increasingly important to moderate the kinds of content that kids can access. For excesses in screen-based entertainment, he argues, can hinder people’s ability to contextualize information and develop the skills to follow complex linear narratives. Similarly, as a paper out of the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction suggests, spending too much time on television and video games, without supplemental education-based or typographic content, can result in slowed learning. Moreover, the fact that these impacts of entertainment-dominated media are critically understudied means that we should be particularly cautious of such drastic increases in our uptake of digital entertainment.
Still, balance also means that entertainment-based media can be okay when consumed in healthy proportion to education-based media and off-screen media like reading. In fact, and as reflected in the Surgeon General’s recent advisory on social media and mental health, entertainment-based social media can help contribute to important feelings of connection with others. Media balance is therefore not about labeling individual pieces of content as good or bad, but about figuring out how to moderate the amount of entertainment-based media we consume while ensuring enough time for educational content and screen-free activities.
Yet media companies aren’t always making it easy for us to do this. The supremacy of entertainment-based media over other media forms, especially paper-based typographic media, narrows the media landscape to a dangerous degree. It’s almost as if today’s media consumers are now shopping exclusively at supermarkets that sell only pasta. Sure, it’s great for one-stop shopping before noodle night, but not exactly ideal for those who want to hit all the food groups. Which is why to help people find media balance, especially porous populations like kids, media companies can play an important role by balancing the media supply in this same way. Just as you can find fruits and proteins and dairy at the supermarket, media companies can help ensure that we have the variety of content that makes media balance possible in the first place.
Entertainment can evidently be found in nearly all media, and there is even research to suggest that it can play an important role in helping kids to process information. But when content offers nothing else besides entertainment, it’s hard to obtain the full scope of cognitive value that media can help us develop. To be clear, I’m not talking about infotainment or other entertainment-as-education conglomerates. I’m talking about the kind of content that offers nothing in the way of learning, morality, or representation; the stuff that is designed solely to divert attention towards the screen. Having media balance can be attained only when content makers and content consumers recognize the importance of keeping this supply of pure entertainment in proportion with educational content and everything else in between. The entertainment industry in particular can do this in four primary ways:
Bolstering its collection of educational content
Clearly denoting when content is designed to be educational
Enabling users to search specifically for more educational content
Implementing features that promote greater portion control
When we reconceptualize the concept of digital detox as a more long-term pursuit of balance, we recognize that what’s most important is the collection of our media experiences and not individual pieces of content in isolation. Kids especially can benefit from this notion of balance that complements what they already know about nutrition. Given that our current media landscape tends to skew this balance in favor of entertainment, which carries non-trivial cognitive risks, media platforms should feel empowered to make it easier for people, especially kids, to achieve media balance. And they can do this by maintaining a greater supply of educational content and making it easier for us to portion out how much content we want to consume at any given time. Similarly, we should continue to show kids the importance of screen-free media like reading, which promotes different forms of cognitive development and properly complements other forms of digital media, which are ultimately here to stay.
With proper media balance, we can feel good knowing that we are getting many different kinds of value out of the digital content we consume. And technology platforms are the perfect partners to help us reach these new ideals about balance in the digital age. After all, it’s hard to make it in the world on just pasta.
The Symbiotic Relationship between Researchers, Storytellers, and Gen Z in Authentically Representing LGBTQ+ Youth
Media has the power to shape our communities, and that is especially important when we look at the representation of historically marginalized groups like the LGBTQ+ community. The ideas and beliefs contained in media content, both positive and negative, directly impact audience attitudes about the world around them. When featuring queer adolescent characters, it’s essential to listen to the perspectives of today’s teens and young adults and create stories that implement the real change and representation they want to see in their communities. In a cycle of listening, creating, and learning, storytellers, adolescents, and researchers can and should collaborate to create authentic depictions of LGBTQ+ adolescents that inspire and positively impact audiences.
Sheena Brevig, a filmmaker and the Workshop Director for the Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS), draws from her own experiences as a queer person to foster more accurate representation of LGBTQ+ communities in film and television. Whether it be through facilitating workshops for large entertainment companies or working on smaller film projects, often in collaboration with other queer creators, she “really believes in the power of storytelling to break down walls and foster conversations that might be hard to have.”
For Brevig, the most beautiful part of this is creating projects that others can watch and relate to, find bits of themselves in, and serve as parallel experiences for the queer community.
“It’s about increasing visibility for the queer community as well as breaking down stigma. Particularly in queer communities of color and in my case, Asian and Japanese queer communities.”
For instance, Brevig’s LGBTQ+ Identities workshops have created vulnerable moments of sharing and healing between strangers.
“People end up sharing really vulnerable things and it seems to be somewhat cathartic, or it seems to start a conversation for the company on their end. We have played the role of this unique kind of start-the-conversation-space.”
Brevig and her team have even worked to tackle areas often not addressed when considering diversifying media landscapes, like the gaming industry. In collaboration with Activision Blizzard King Gaming, Brevig ran one of the most interactive workshops to support the breaking of old patterns and toxic representations of gender. The Body Diversity Workshop, which ran in collaboration with Warner Media explored “body-type diversity, representation, and character creation. It was something every single person in the audience could relate to, it doesn’t matter what gender you are or how old you are.”
Many industries and companies stick to stale tactics of performative LGBTQ+ representation – like adding rainbow colors to their company’s logo for Pride Month – and think it achieves the impact queer youth are asking for. In actuality, these are tiny changes that check a box but do not appease the greater audience who want more acknowledgment and action. These audience demands are long overdue and Brevig encourages the calling out of companies that have not completely embraced this wave of much-needed change.
“The queer community is critical of what they’re seeing and they want to feel represented, they will call out things that are through a heteronormative lens. ”
It is not just about quantity but quality of representation, for example expanding past just the gay white male lens and including all queer communities. This pursuit for intentional content that creates a genuinely positive impact is one of the best outcomes of Brevig’s workshops. They unify and inspire others to learn from her team’s guidance and plant seeds of change wherever they go.
Clearly, the impact is evident, with people who participated in CSS’ workshops applying learned empathy to shows and movies they create. After attending the workshops, Tim Federle, the showrunner for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, a show that ran on Disney Channel starting in 2019, was able to bring a fresh awareness and perspective to the writers' room when developing his diverse cast of queer characters. “It was a really full circle moment where I saw how the workshops we put on were applied. As a viewer, I saw how much I could reap the benefits of seeing this more inclusive and more accurately, authentically representative content,” said Brevig.
For Nare Aghadjanian, a rising sophomore at UCLA, who identifies as queer and fights for queer rights every day, seeing shows like High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and other recently diversified shows is something she has a personal stake in. For Aghadjanian, feeling safe and represented is equally about a physical and digital environment.
At UCLA she says that at first she “wasn’t expecting to feel as safe being out as queer at [school] as [much as she] ended up being.” But Aghadjanian found a community.
“There was a Pride Admit Weekend that I attended online that made me feel really glad about going to LA for school, I knew that no matter what I would always have a community, and after being surrounded by a lot of homophobia that led to major mental health issues, it was a breath of fresh air to see the resource center and queer groups at UCLA. ”
Digital and intangible representation is just as important and impactful and Aghadjanian fiercely highlighted all the negativity and misrepresentation that is not being addressed. “I see so much racism, misogyny, transphobia, sexualization, and ableism.” She echoes the need to break free of the heteronormative patterns industries have fallen into, saying how mainstream movies and novels only focus on what makes them comfortable rather than what actually incites change. “When aiming for representations of marginalized groups it’s important actually to have it represent the general public - these movies shouldn’t be focused on the sexual aspect or just be one big coming out story.”
Nuanced storytelling is what Aghadjian is fighting for and she encourages every young, eager queer person to fight for it too. “I hope one day queer representation will turn towards actual representation and not just be a glorification of a white gay man, even if that representation is critical as well,” she said. The amplification of voices like hers is another step industries, researchers and creators alike should take, expanding their hearts to listen and implement what the youth actually feel.
“Queer people are not just a coming out story or solely experience violence, there should be an incorporation of all love.”
The benefit is nothing if not a win-win, allowing audiences to feel more seen, reflecting the world as it really is, and allowing studios to find more success and respect in the industry.
Research is the root of all this change and communication between researchers and creators is the conduit to representation that reflects the truth of queer stories and real-lived experiences. Adriana Manago, Ph.D., a cultural development psychologist, has been researching LGBTQ+ adolescents and the power of social media. She’s found that social media was not an obstacle but a tool for LGBTQ+ kids to explore themselves and use the language of the Internet to develop their queer identities in a place full of community and validation.
“There are three key navigational strategies on social media for engaging with cultural narratives for gender and sexuality on social media platforms: seeking and sharing information, creating queer community, and making choices about visibility and permanence.”
By engaging in all of these activities, LGBTQ+ teens can branch past the restrictive definitions of gender that Manago said are part of the hard-to-break rigidity of youth identity development. More than anything, a supportive environment whether digital or family-based is key to offering the honest and authentic space LGBTQ+ teens need to feel understood and represented in the media they are consuming.
“LGBTQ+ community is not a monolith. My students and I have examined variations in social media use and consequences depending on family contexts and intersections between gender, sexual, and ethnic identities. In these studies, we are finding that LGBTQ+ youth who have more supportive families and who provide resources for exploration and validation are less likely to rely on social media to understand and construct the self.”
Being proactive and utilizing the various intersecting identities of individuals to initiate change is one of the most important and beautiful tools of research. LGBTQ+ teens are using social media to find a safe space and to understand themselves, and so perhaps if creators understand this intimate need for a space to grow, this quest will be satiated much sooner. If Brevig’s comments and Aghadjian’s input are taken to heart, compounded with the robust research of psychologists like Manago, real change is on the horizon and this Pride Month brings us one step closer to it.
Teens Speak Out Research Snapshot: Social Media Regulation
New survey from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA finds most teens agree with the Surgeon General’s recent social media advisory, but disagree with new laws
In an effort to bridge the divide between adults and younger generations on the issue of social media and adolescent mental health, we conducted our first Teens Speak Out Research Snapshot to capture the valuable insights of young people on three major policy developments: Utah's parental consent regulations for social media usage, Montana’s TikTok ban, and the Surgeon General's advisory on social media. When teens have the opportunity to share their perspectives they usually have important things to contribute. So we went directly to 284 teens, ages 13-18, from across the United States to ask them what they think about the laws that are being passed around the country.
“... I don’t think that it should be banned for everybody. I think that our parents should take the time to teach us things that get harmless and things not to do but I don’t think social media should be banned as a whole because it has a lot of positive things although it has negatives too but if we are taught at a young age the difference between good and bad and what not to do and what to do I think it would be OK.”
Below we break down the findings.
Montana Bill: TikTok Banned
64% difference between male and female teens about ban
Only 27.5% of all teens said that the ban is a good idea. We wondered who are these teens that agree with banning something they use so much? Turns out when broken down by gender identity, the majority of the teens agreeing with the ban were male. 38.9% male teens agreed with the ban while only 19.7% female teens agreed - a whopping 64% difference. Moreover, teens who identify as non-binary disagreed the most that the ban was a good idea.
“I believe social media has taught me and many other kids important things about life and has kept us entertained during parts of our life like the pandemic. I feel it is important to let kids express themselves on social media because you are able to meet friends and communicate.”
“I think that the internet can indeed be dangerous, but that the restrictions that are being put on young people will overall make their quality of life and mental health worse rather than better.”
With teen girls using TikTok more than teen boys, this difference becomes even more significant.
Utah: Parental Consent for Under 18-year-olds
37% of all teens agreed with this legislation. In this instance, we again saw significant gender differences. Once more, male teens agreed most with the law, followed by females and non-binary teens. With females reporting that they use social media more than males, the fact that males agree more with restrictions about a medium they use least is interesting. While age differences were not significant, not surprisingly, older teens tended to agree more with parental consent than younger teens.
“I feel like the problem is that social media companies do not take any effort to censor harmful content to minors. When done correctly social media does help many kids socialize and improves their mental health.”
Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media
More than double the number of teens agree than disagree that social media use is harming young people’s mental health.
Finally we asked adolescents for their reactions to the following statement from the Surgeon General’s advisory:
“The most common question parents ask me is, ‘is social media safe for my kids’. The answer is that we don’t have enough evidence to say it’s safe, and in fact, there is growing evidence that social media use is associated with harm to young people’s mental health. Children are exposed to harmful content on social media, ranging from violent and sexual content, to bullying and harassment. And for too many children, social media use is compromising their sleep and valuable in-person time with family and friends. We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address.”
A passionate polarity amongst adolescents emerged with 52.4% of teens strongly or somewhat agreeing with the statement and 22.2% of teens strongly or somewhat disagreeing with the statement (the rest were neutral). Gender was not significantly different so we do not report on those differences.
“I think it is definitely true that negative things on social media are harmful to teens. I believe that the positive things outweigh this though and that restrictions or rules can be added to get rid of negative things but positive things can be there still.”
Despite adolescents’ persistent desire for digital connectivity, adults remain doubtful of their ability to navigate the online landscape responsibly. The fear and distrust shared by older generations has manifested in policymakers’ attempts to impose limitations and even outright bans on the very platforms that have become an integral part and for some a vital mental health tool in young people’s lives.
Contributions: Jamie Azar, Dr. Alisha Hines, Emma Terrell, and Dr. Yalda T. Uhls
To see the methodology for this report, click here.
To learn more about the Teens Speak Out Research Snapshot series, click here.
Boosting Asian American Women's Visibility Through Comics
AAPI Heritage Month Feature
As a little girl I watched Mulan six times a day, no seriously, six times. I sat with my lola on the couch all day fixated on this girl who left everything she knew to fight for the honor of her family and her country. I think subconsciously I was drawn to Mulan more than the other Disney princesses, not simply because she looked like me, but because she was a girl who didn’t need saving from any prince; she saved the day herself. As I grew up, I continued to keep my eyes glued to the silver screen because the magic of storytelling made me feel so alive. It asks the audience to step outside of themselves, to have genuine care and curiosity about another person’s life, to dig deep into another’s soul, and that is powerful.
Rushing to be where all the storytelling action was, I moved to Los Angeles with my mom at 17-years-old. I remember coming out of auditions and realizing that not a lot of people looked like me. Was it because the roles that were written weren’t really written for people that looked like me? Was it because Asian Americans aren’t typically thought of as leading ladies? All these questions were circulating in my mind until one day I decided to do something about it. I realized that if I’m not seeing the roles for young girls out there that look like me, then I was going to have to be part of the solution.
Instead of waiting around and taking a passive seat to all the major players in the entertainment industry, we decided to take action. My mom and I began discussing what this representation could look like. Being the sci-fi, fantasy, superhero-loving family that we are, we thought, “why couldn’t we imagine a world in which a young Filipina superhero exists?” That’s when we decided to take control. Let’s just create the stories we wanted to see and not ask for permission to be seen. As we continued to play around with the idea of a story rooted in Filipino culture, we began diving into the different mythos of the Philippines and realized how fantastic and magical these tales were. With superheroes being a huge part of the comic book genre and the world of Philippine mythology so vibrant, we thought the best way to tell this story would be through the visual medium of comic books.
Despite female readers accounting for half of the comic book audience in its early popularity in the 1940’s, history has shown that women continue to be left out of the narrative. As major comic book companies grew, such as Marvel and DC, the focus shifted to the superhero genre that was tailored toward male viewership. Female representation is seriously lacking both on and off the page. Research shows that despite the growth in female artists and writers in the comic book industry, women are still heavily underrepresented with female creators accounting for 16-17% of Marvel and DC’s talent pool. This underrepresentation can further explain why women are left off the page and not represented as the main character with just 12% of mainstream superhero comics showcasing female protagonists. Out of these few female protagonists, many are drawn with unrealistic bodies and exaggerated features that hyper-sexualize the female body and cater specifically to the male gaze. These stories are often filled with a surplus of sexist undertones and provocative poses that send unattainable messages of striving for an impossible body. So where does that leave young female readers? Who do they have to not only look up to, but see themselves truly reflected in? Where are the characters that make them say “I know her. I am her.”
Of course, these types of characters are not likely to be written in an authentic way (or at all) if the people from our communities aren’t welcomed in the writers rooms. Representation is not true representation if it is only seen in one sector of the industry. When we mean representation we mean visibility both on and off the screen and page. Asian American female writers and artists are necessary to tell these stories authentically. So when we were creating our team for our comic book company, it only made sense that the mission of our company, which is to highlight “Asian” and “women”-driven narratives, was reflected in the team itself. This led us to create the first all Asian women comic book company.
The first series of Kwento Comics, The Mask of Haliya, tells the story of a Filipina-American teen, Marisol Reyes, who goes to the Philippines after the death of her great-grandmother. There, she finds a mysterious wooden mask at the wake where she not only finds herself imbued with incredible powers, but at the epicenter of an ancient war between Philippine shamans and gods of the Underworld. When introducing our main character, we wanted to break the stereotypes of women in comic books that had unrealistic body types and create an accurate depiction of a young Filipina girl growing into adulthood. A girl who isn’t perfect, who messes up and is trying to figure it all out, an unlikely hero. Asian American women have been scarcely represented in US media. In a study conducted by UCLA’s 2022 Hollywood Diversity Report, Asians represented 5.6% of film leads with women representing less than half of those leads. When they are represented, historically they have been depicted as stereotypes from the “Dragon Lady”, “China Doll”, or “The Nerd”. It was imperative that we break this cycle at Kwento Comics and shine a light on untold narratives and dynamic, fully fleshed out characters. Through the discovery of her family’s ancestral past and Filipino culture, Mari will go down a journey of self-discovery and an understanding of who she is truly destined to become.
Another important element of our storytelling is the inclusion of Philippine mythology. Audiences have seen everything from Greek to Roman to Norse Mythology with the likes of Zeus, Jupiter, and Thor, however there are a plethora of other mythologies in the world that never get the spotlight. As a young Filipina girl growing up, I was never exposed to the vibrant world of Philippine mythology that existed. Similar to our main character who goes to the Philippines where she discovers her Filipino heritage, the comic book was a way for me to dive deep into my own culture and share it with the world. It is through working on this comic book that I have taken true pride in where I come from and hope that others will feel inspired to do the same by creating more content that lifts up Asian American visibility in media.
Actionable Insights:
Do research on your own culture and see what folks, legends, and myths your ancestors told to each other.
Show more women in comics with real and authentic bodies.
Create dynamic female characters that follow the Bechdel Test.
When assembling your creative team, include those part of marginalized communities - BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women.
Waverley Lim
Former UCLA Student
Read more about Kwento Comics in The Daily Bruin.
Turning Red: The Experience of Asian American Teenage Girls
AAPI HERITAGE MONTH FEATURE
For the celebration of AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) heritage month, we chose to highlight Pixar’s first Asian-led film – Turning Red. The coming-of-age animated movie, featuring predominantly Asian American (AA) characters, is the first to be solo directed by a woman and, more specifically, a woman of color, Domee Shi. Turning Red centers on Meilin “Mei” Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese Canadian girl who navigates through puberty, friendship, and cultural expectations.
To our surprise, some reviewers have criticized the film as too personal and specific to be relatable to most audiences. However, we have found that Turning Red accurately depicts what other films haven’t been able to before: our unique experiences growing up as AA teenage girls.
Asian American Mother-Daughter Conflict
The mother-daughter relationship has been the topic of many stories about young girls throughout the years. Films such as Lady Bird, Freaky Friday, and Brave have portrayed this relationship, but the intergenerational conflict between AA moms and daughters is particularly distinctive. For AA immigrant families, this conflict often stems from the disconnect between collectivism and individualism, or the core community values of Eastern and Western cultures, respectively. Turning Red follows in the footsteps of AA mother-daughter stories (such as Joy Luck Club) and adds to a growing list of films that depict this dynamic (such as Everything, Everywhere, All at Once).
The relationship between Mei and her mom, Ming, fluctuates throughout the movie. Mei tries her best to be the perfect daughter according to her family’s expectations, but begins to experience changes in her body, hormone levels, and behavior. She transforms into a giant red panda when she feels strong emotions, such as joy, anger, sadness, and embarrassment. The panda serves as a metaphor for puberty, a turbulent time for both children and parents. Mei starts to fight with her mom and goes against her mom’s expectations and family traditions. The film does not glorify disobedience; rather, it portrays the complicated reality of the parent-child dynamic during adolescence. In particular, Turning Red highlights the immigrant mother-daughter bond and the trauma passed down from one generation to the next. Like what was done previously, Ming seeks to control and suppress Mei’s red panda. As Mei learns to deal with her red panda and tackle her family’s intergenerational trauma, she and her mom realize that it is okay to embrace the messy parts of yourself.
The Importance of 4*Town
Another source of parental conflict is Mei’s desire to attend the 4*Town concert with her friends. Although many dismiss 4*Town as a comedic portrayal of the hormonal, boy-crazy tendencies of teenage girls, boy bands and fandom culture play an important role in AA identity development. For AA teens growing up on the Internet, some of the first AA media representation was through YouTube creators. Some channels explored makeup and Asian beauty, like Michelle Phan and Jenn Im, while others made comedy skits about AA identity, like Ryan Higa and Wong Fu Productions. Fans of these creators on YouTube developed a community for many AA viewers to discuss their identity openly and see people who look like them on screen when Hollywood lacked representation. Additionally, many AA teens consume media from Asia itself, such as anime and K-Pop, to connect with their identity. The term Hallyu, or Korean wave, was coined in the 1990s as Korean pop culture rose in popularity throughout Asia and the U.S. This wave has continued through today, as seen through the craze around Korean music, like BTS, and the praise for Korean dramas, like Squid Game. We even see a nod to K-Pop in Turning Red through one of 4*Town’s members, Tae Young. In an interview about the movie, Domee Shi revealed that she was influenced by both American and Korean boy bands growing up, acknowledging that the media often ridicules young girls for being a part of such fandoms. Hence, Turning Red depicts the significant influence of fandom for AA girls’ experiences and is one of the first to do so seriously, without the typical mockery of teen girls.
4*Town was also important in portraying the connection within Mei’s friend group. According to research on teenage fans, participating in fandom culture facilitates teens to establish close communities and friendships around a shared interest for celebrities. We see this phenomenon when 4*Town ties the four friends, Mei, Abby, Priya, and Miriam, together. Contrary to the typical toxic depictions of teenage friendships in television shows and movies, Turning Red provides a positive portrayal of female friendships. Mei, Abby, Priya, and Miriam are able to be themselves around each other and appreciate each other’s quirkiness. This gives audiences a fresh perspective on teenage female friendships and shows the supportive community surrounding fandoms.
Conclusion and Next Steps
Turning Red normalizes puberty (emotions, menstruation, boy-craziness, etc.) and celebrates strong female friendships, while addressing topics like intergenerational trauma and identity formation. Indeed, the film provides AA teen girls with an accurate portrayal of their experiences, but there is still room for improvement in authentic and inclusive AA representation. Future stories can include more diversity in Asian ethnic groups: current representation is overwhelmingly East Asian and lacks South Asian and Southeast Asian experiences. It is also important to consider intersectionality in AA representation, including LGBTQ+ representation, biracial and multicultural identities, and different ages.
Sisi Peng
CSS Fellow
Alexa Mugol
Former CSS Intern
Making the Science of Adolescent Development Part of Your Story
During adolescence, we are rapidly learning and adapting in ways that naturally take advantage of supportive relationships, environments, and experiences that promote positive growth and development.
In the past few decades, the science of adolescent development has changed researcher’s perceptions of what adolescence is and how it should be supported. Today we know that adolescence is a time of remarkable opportunity. The years between age 10 to about 25 mark a period of rapid growth, development, and learning as we discover and adapt to the world around us. We forge our sense of who we are and who we aspire to be. We learn to make decisions, manage our emotions, and create deeper connections with peers, romantic partners, and others in our communities. We also build resilience and develop interests, passions, and meaningful goals that shape our adult lives.
During adolescence, we are rapidly learning and adapting in ways that naturally take advantage of supportive relationships, environments, and experiences that promote positive growth and development. This makes adolescence a key window for learning and discovery, as well as an opportunity to build resilience and mitigate the effects of earlier adversity. Experiences that provide autonomy and choice as we explore are particularly important, as we are primed to learn from and give back to our environments in ways that benefit our society through things like community service and civic action.
Unfortunately, the social systems that serve us during this developmentally sensitive period are often not structured to provide optimal support for learning and positive adaptation. In some cases, barriers to successful development—such as poverty, discrimination, and earlier trauma—can reinforce inequities and amplify risks for negative outcomes.
Public understanding of adolescent development lags behind what current research tells us, and popular culture often reinforces our worst assumptions. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The new experiences we encounter during adolescence, the mistakes we sometimes make along the way, and the success or failure of the systems that should support all provide fodder for great storytelling. Coming of age movies as diverse as Fame, Real Women Have Curves, and Eighth Grade have successfully depicted how adolescents discover their identities and learn to navigate the world around them, often through a process of trial and error. They also show how important supportive, caring relationships with friends, family members, and other adults are to their wellbeing.
Stories about adolescence can also help writers explore situations like poverty, racism, and marginalization that are obstacles to healthy development. Movies like Boyz n the Hood, Moonlight, and Winter’s Bone tackle the harsh racial and social inequalities too many adolescents face to create powerful, contextualized stories. Importantly, these aren’t just stories of resiliency in the face of adversity - they show us why it is imperative that we address racial and social inequalities and transform dysfunctional and discriminatory systems.
Here are some actionable insights for storytellers who want to tell a more complete story about adolescent development, with all its complexity and promise:
Make adolescents multi-layered. Avoid one-dimensional characterizations of adolescents as “the nerd” or “the bully.” Adolescent development is complex, and so are adolescents.
Show adolescents failing, then trying again. Adolescents are resilient and stories about finding your way through difficult times are always compelling. Just don’t forget to include the supportive relationships – with parents, peers, and others – that make that resiliency possible.
Include supportive adult characters who are outside the family. Adolescents are forming a lot of new relationships, which creates a lot of potential for different characters and connected storylines.
Tell stories about adolescents contributing to their communities and engaging in activism. Black Lives Matter, youth voting organizing, and stories of young people helping their neighbors and peers during the pandemic all have the makings of a great plot line.
Contextualize stories of adversity by talking about racism, discrimination, and social class. Conversations around racism, LGBTQ+ rights, and growing income inequality are changing the narrative landscape. They should be part of how we depict adolescents, as well.
We’ll return to these insights and more as we continue with this blog series.
Freelancer
Coming of Age in the Digital Age: Telling a Stronger Social Media Story
Although recent revelations show how damaging social media can be, it also allows adolescents to do important developmental tasks like exploring their identities and making independent decisions in a new way.
“Eight years after the original website went dark, a new generation of New York private school teens are introduced to the social surveillance of Gossip Girl. The prestige series will address just how much social media—and the landscape of New York itself—has changed in the intervening years.”
So reads the official series summary for the 2021 reboot of early aughts TV hit Gossip Girl. We’re currently steeped in ‘90s/‘2000s nostalgia, and the show was highly anticipated. But it’s since been widely panned in reviews as failing to recapture the vitality of its predecessor. Why?
One reason is that the primary storytelling device—an omnipresent narrator using social media— feels a little stale. For many years social media has been the bogeyman in portrayals of modern adolescence, to the extent that it has become a trope (see for example Hard Candy, 2005; Nerve, 2014; and 13 Reasons Why, 2017). And as use of social media as a storytelling device becomes more repetitive, these stories become more dark and cynical—and more predictable.
The reason this storyline is so common is that it reflects the popular narrative that social media is inherently damaging to adolescents. Our research has found that the “Social Media and Mental Health” narrative popularized in the media reinforces the deeply ingrained assumption that the modern world poses a series of threats to children and teenagers. Technology, in this narrative, exposes adolescents to “too much too soon,” damaging self-esteem, increasing the risk of bullying, and driving the fragmentation of community relationships and the breakdown of the nuclear family. In this line of reasoning, little good can come from social media, a perception reflected in Euphoria’s plot line about revenge porn and underage pornography, and the anonymous trolling that propels the story forward in Gossip Girl 2.0.
In reality, the role social media plays in adolescents’ lives is more nuanced. Although recent revelations show how damaging social media can be, it also allows adolescents to do important developmental tasks like exploring their identities and making independent decisions in a new way. Young people who feel marginalized at home and school often find support online, where they can connect with others who share their experiences and interests—especially important for young people who may feel stigmatized, like LGTBQ+ youth. Social media makes it easier to find community and become involved in civic action and volunteering. Adolescents organize for change online, connecting, learning, and building support for social justice in their communities. Social media has been critical for young people’s political advocacy around BLM, climate change, voting, gun safety, and other high-impact issues. These examples include all the hallmarks of good stories, including conflict, tension, and controversy—but also relatable characters and relationships an audience can root for.
Depicting social media as inherently dangerous does a disservice to adolescents who need support as they navigate their digital lives, and these days doing so may not even make for a good story. So how can we tell better stories and convey social media as a potential force for good?
Center stories around concepts of discovery and exploration over “doom and gloom,” to help people think about how technology helps young people find their identities.
Through plot, use social media as a device that connects adolescents to their communities, rather than tearing them apart.
Tell stories about how social media fosters civic and political engagement. Avoid stereotypical portrayals of young people as zombies glued to their phones, and instead show how they are becoming active and engaged citizens.
Create characters who connect through social media to lift each other up, rather than spread mean-spirited gossip.
When exploring the connection between social media use and mental health, lead with the positives, don’t just dwell on the over-familiar risks and harms. Social media can support young people’s mental health in important ways, too.
Now more than ever—with so much of our lives online due to COVID—it’s time to tell stories that capture the reality of social media and adolescence. Social media isn’t just a risk, it’s an opportunity, and in 2022 it’s only becoming more important for young people. Social media continues to evolve, as does adolescents’ use of it as a tool and a medium for expression. Stories about social media and adolescence should evolve, as well.
Freelancer
Foster Youth Storytelling: Less Vulnerability, More Resiliency
Both news and popular media are used to portraying foster youth as permanently damaged, either by the circumstances that led them to foster care and/or by the broken system that failed them.
Tune into any crime series for an episode or two and odds are you’ll come upon at least one plot line involving foster youth. After all, we assume that these young people make perfect characters for crime-and-punishment storytelling: they’re vulnerable, abandoned, and hopeless. The Law & Order franchise, and Law & Order: SVU in particular, regularly feature these types of storylines. Both news and popular media are used to portraying foster youth as permanently damaged, either by the circumstances that led them to foster care and/or by the broken system that failed them (for instance Dexter and Killing Eve). The central characters of both Dexter and Killing Eve are both cold-blooded killers shaped by their experiences as foster children. As a result, transition age foster youth are stigmatized and “otherized,” worth saving but never really capable of integrating into families and communities.
When they are not being demonized, the experiences of foster youth are often trivialized instead. From Diff’rent Strokes, to The Blind Side, we’ve seen the temptation to fast forward to the simplistic, happy ending without the complex, difficult aspects of healthy development and identity formation. These storylines don’t leave room to depict the varied resources and supports that transition-age foster youth need to thrive, or the ways in which their needs and desires are similar to other adolescents.
Each of these storylines - the hopeless and the minimized - demand greater nuance. A good example of how to do it is The Fosters (2013-2018). The show took a big step towards compelling storytelling about foster youth with a modern-family dynamic that avoided many of the common traps. The characters faced abandonment, abusive situations, and trust issues, but in ways that spoke to the complexities of finding your footing on the way to adulthood when you don’t have the usual connections to family and a stable home. It also demonstrated the resiliency of foster youth who have the right supports, like stable, ongoing relationships and a sense of community.
Over the course of its five seasons, The Fosters also showed the challenges and experiences that adolescents have in common, whether fostered or not. These included struggles like sibling rivalry, bullying, and racism, as well as the joyful discovery of talents, passions, and sexualities.
Depicting these shared challenges and opportunities for growth brought the characters out of the realm of “the other” and made them identifiable, winning audience fandom and critical acclaim in the process.
Our research provides a framework for better, more nuanced storytelling when it comes to portrayals of transition-age foster youth. Here are some ideas for how to do it:
Include the ways in which foster youth are similar to other adolescents, not just what makes them different. Realistic storytelling should show the everyday challenges and discoveries transition-age foster youth face as they become adults.
Show what foster youth need to make their journey to adulthood happy and successful. Don’t just depict their adolescence as a time to survive, but as a time to thrive, when they have caring relationships and stable living situations.
Avoid the overly simplistic “shame and blame” plots when it comes to birth and foster parents. Instead, place foster youth’s experiences within a larger narrative about the racial and economic inequalities that set the stage for a youth’s trajectory.
Widen the lens beyond the family and show community connections. The reality is that foster youth are often disconnected from the communities around them, and this can be as challenging as the lack of family. Make the place they live a protagonist too—opening up new opportunities for the central characters to grow, and new possibilities for original stories.
Freelancer
Reckoning with Race in Adolescent Stories
Diversity and inclusion in film and television contributes to young people of color’s identity formation in positive ways when they avoid stereotyping.
This year ABC rebooted the classic 1990s series The Wonder Years, a show we discussed in our previous blog as a portal for talking about middle school and early adolescence. The time period of the late 1960s remains the same and the two series share many of the same coming-of-age themes, but there is one big difference. Instead of focusing on a middle-class white family in California, the family at the center of the reboot is a middle-class Black family living in Alabama.
Changing the race of a character or the cast of a show or film, or racebending, has a long history in America. While it has often been a tool of discrimination and whitewashing, it’s been used more recently to increase representation of people of color and disrupt established narratives. The Wonder Years reboot does the latter.
Research has consistently shown how important it is that children and young people see characters who not only look like them but also sound like them. Diversity and inclusion in film and television contributes to young people of color’s identity formation in positive ways when they avoid stereotyping (and the same can be said for LGBTQ+ youth). The new Wonder Years joins shows like Reservation Dogs and On My Block in mixing coming-of-age comedy with the drama of growing up in a society plagued by discrimination and structural racism.
Based on an early viewing, the reboot accurately depicts the universals of early adolescence - not just its awkwardness and heartbreaks, but also the ways in which young people explore their identities, make discoveries about themselves and the world around them, and benefit from the support of caring adults. It has to tread the fine line between overgeneralization and authentic portrayal of the experience of Black families in the South in the late ‘60s. In the original series, Kevin getting pulled over and ticketed is an annoyance. In the reboot, Dean gets the “police talk” from his parents well before he can even drive.
These shows have a delicate balance to strike. We know that all portrayals of adolescence better serve development when they address this stage of life not just as one to survive - filled with heightened risk - but also as a unique opportunity to build lifelong resilience and agency. That’s why narratives that effectively tackle race and equity in adolescence are ones that not only present adversity in believable ways, but also authentically show characters growing in resilience by navigating through it.
Here are a few recommendations, informed by our research, to support that approach.
Portray racism as embedded in everyday institutions, not just through transient interpersonal interactions. Highlighting how our institutions and social norms maintain racial inequality, limit opportunities, and create unequal access for people of color helps audiences to see their own roles in perpetuating these norms—and how it harms adolescents. For instance, in the fourth season of The Wire, the show portrayed to wide acclaim, an accurate view of Baltimore Schools: dysfunction, waste and mismanagement, a dearth of resources. The viewer absorbed the ways in which adolescents in such a large, underfunded school system struggle with navigating education and social pressures without the safety nets provided by more advantaged districts.
Use storylines that connect young people to their communities in positive ways. When adolescents are connected to their communities, both adolescents and communities thrive. Centering young people’s stories in the communities that shape them also makes for compelling narratives. The success of Hulu’s Reservation Dogs comes in part from its showing how the characters’ lives and outlooks are shaped by their experiences living in a reservation community. The characters and conditions that surround the four main adolescent characters are often played for laughs, but they also help make the story more meaningful.
Tell stories of resilience and agency, not just adversity. Authentic depictions of adolescents of color cannot ignore the challenges of growing up in a racist society. But depictions of some young people, particularly young Black men, being “lost” reinforces harmful stereotypes and can have a negative effect on identity formation. Stories that show young people not only confronting but also tackling oppressive, racist systems - not just racist individuals - makes for engaging storylines and shows audiences how structural racism works (see The Hate U Give).
Freelancer
When Dramatizing Adolescent Advocacy, Keep It Real
While a search for identity through advocacy tends to be the primary theme in works that explore adolescent engagement, a search for community can be an equally compelling source.
Dear White People begins with the character Sam White on her regular campus radio show, a device at the center of both the 2014 film and the Netflix series by the same name. The series questions whether and how the “post-race” claims from the ivory tower of a fictional Ivy League university translate to on-the-ground student life. Spoiler alert: those claims don’t always prove true to their idealistic word. Race relations at Winchester University remain, in a word, fraught. And a good number of its students are not okay with that.
As a reflection of our current, real-world moment, race is a central issue catalyzing advocacy among the series’ lead characters, but it certainly isn’t the only one. If anything, it’s the search for identity - who am I and how is that defined? - that drives the characters of Dear White People to challenge established systems. Unlike other depictions of adolescent engagement, such as The Hate U Give, which centers on a flashpoint of racial justice uprising, Dear White People focuses on advocacy as a workaday pursuit for its characters. True to life, these social justice storylines are peppered in with the rest of the adolescent experience: love and heartbreak, experimentation and error, friendship and betrayal. And that’s what makes it authentic.
While a search for identity through advocacy tends to be the primary theme in works that explore adolescent engagement, a search for community can be an equally compelling source. In Reservation Dogs, we meet four indigenous youths who are determined to cut ties with the Oklahoma reservation where they were raised, but who inadvertently strengthen those ties over the course of a season. They discover their craved sense of community right where they are and, as co-creator Sterlin Harjo explains, “decide to become vigilantes and clean up the community, but in a funny way.” The teens’ community engagement remains credible throughout every episodic adventure by avoiding sentimental simplicity and embracing how messy, funny, and sometimes painful these connections are. It’s life.
Our research-based takeaways for portrayals of adolescent advocacy:
Depict adolescence engagement in authentic ways. To be compelling, characters must be more than “do-gooders.” Let them seek out engagement organically, and as part of adolescents’ typical exploration of self-identity.
Don’t be afraid to be open-ended. Developing one's identity is complex and ongoing, lasting well into adulthood and one could argue a lifelong process of discovery. Similarly, our communities ebb and flow, while the fight against injustice is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Good stories embrace the open-endedness and ambiguity of this process of discovery, leaving open the possibility of new opportunities for growth and for making change.
Make community a character. The link between support for adolescent development and connected communities is proven and strong. Positive, meaningful relationships can be about more than just family and peers. Communities can also be protagonists – full of key players that help young people develop their identities as they become full members of the adult world. Reservation Dogs does this beautifully by connecting its main characters to various community members in hilarious and touching ways.
Comedy yields credibility. Engagement and advocacy can be portrayed as part of developing positive identity—but there’s a fine line between powerful and precious. Humor, especially around shared, everyday adolescent experiences (e.g. early romance) will keep characters relatable when they stand up for their still-evolving beliefs.
Freelancer
Nuance Needed in Adolescent Mental Health Stories
Even before the pandemic, mental health challenges were the leading cause of poor life outcomes for youth.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of adolescents in ways we are just beginning to understand, it’s also been a boon to our collective awareness of an issue that existed long before “social distancing” became a fixture in the national lexicon. Adolescence is a developmental period when many mental health problems like depression and substance use begin to emerge – and social and environmental factors can compound these issues. Even before the pandemic, mental health challenges were the leading cause of poor life outcomes for youth. In the 10 years before 2019, the number of high school students reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness had increased by 40% to more than 1 in 3 students. The pandemic has only magnified these pre-existing challenges with shuttered schools, social isolation, and compounded financial and psychological strain on families.
As the pandemic continues, general awareness of the importance of adolescent mental health has increased considerably. But awareness of a problem doesn’t automatically lead to sensitive storytelling. The backlash toward the television show 13 Reasons Why from media critics, educators, and parents points to the difficulties writers face when tackling mental health crises and suicide in adolescents. Graphic, sensationalized content about teen mental health often walks a thin line between relatability and exploitation.
When done right, though, fictional stories may lead to positive outcomes by reducing stigma and normalizing conversations about mental health. This was even the case with the controversial 13 Reasons Why, as research by the Center for Scholars and Storytellers found adolescent viewers were more likely to seek information about issues depicted in the show and have conversations with friends and parents about the topics. Nuanced portrayals of adolescents struggling with mental health and even suicide can be compelling and supportive of healthy development. Here are some recommendations for how to use our research in your stories about mental health:
Strive toward trauma-informed content. This means telling stories in ways that are sensitive - rather than sensationalizing - and empowering towards characters who are experiencing trauma. In the 2012 film The Perks of Being a Wallflower, we see the main character Charlie learn to cope with PTSD from sexual abuse through an evolution of methods – from friendships, to self-medication with drugs and alcohol, and finally to inpatient treatment. The Perks of Being a Wallflower reflects what we know about resilience in adolescence while telling a beautiful (and critically acclaimed) coming of age story.
Model resilience by balancing bleakness with hope. Experts suggest that talking openly about suicide can sometimes serve as a protective factor among adolescents, and CSS’s research reinforces this finding. The 2010 film It’s Kind of a Funny Story does an effective - and affecting - job of this. The main character Craig has the self-awareness to recognize when “normal” stress responses to external pressures become unhealthy, leading him to seek help for what has become full-fledged depression. It’s important to show viewers what supportive environments and relationships look like so that young people know these resources are available.
Move beyond “bootstraps” and “individual savior” storylines. Supporting adolescent mental health is not a one-person job or a matter of self-agency as many false narratives would have us believe. In reality, creating the kinds of deep and complex connections needed is a community-wide undertaking. Think about including not just families, but also schools, community-based organizations, and the healthcare system in supporting roles.
Finding an authentic balance in stories about adolescence and mental health can be difficult. But these narratives also have the potential to accurately and inspiringly show audiences what adolescent development looks like – and how we can support young people who are struggling, together.
Freelancer
Rebooting Adolescent Romance Stories
The experience of romantic awakening is individual and varied, but universal in its critical importance to developing social and emotional skills and discovering one's identity.
Young love is a story that’s been told in ways that both warm the heart and elicit sympathetic cringing. The experience of romantic awakening is individual and varied, but universal in its critical importance to developing social and emotional skills and discovering one's identity. These early relationships help us figure out who we are, make independent decisions, and learn to understand the concept of consent. And while they certainly have a biological component, understanding how to navigate them is not at all instinctive. That’s why young people need positive environments and supportive relationships with adults and peers to build healthy romantic relationships. But making authentic adolescent development a through line in stories about young romance doesn’t mean you have to give up the humor - or even the cringing.
The To All the Boys… franchise is a great example of how to do this. The Netflix film trilogy (adapted from the YA novel series) stays true to rom-com expectations while portraying adolescent love in an ever-evolving and age-appropriate way. What makes these movies so fun to watch - in addition to their appealing performances - is witnessing the main character Lara Jean figure out what she wants in her relationship, and what she wants for herself. Lara Jean and Peter’s relationship is filled with trial and error, ultimately culminating in a decision to give long-distance dating a go. Will it work out? The finale leaves it up in the air, but adolescent love is an exploration of the unknown, just as it is in adulthood. To All the Boys… doesn’t have to compromise the romance to tell a developmental story.
Here’s what our research shows about creative storytelling approaches that give adolescent romantic relationships the credit they deserve.
Treat them like the real thing. Romantic relationships in adolescence aren’t just “practice” for grown-up relationships—they are real, and they matter a lot to healthy development.
Make breakups matter, too. Break-ups are as important for healthy development as forming romantic relationships. You can make them dramatic without trivializing them - like Kurt and Blaine’s breakup in Glee - and play them for laughs while still making them consequential - à la She’s the Man.
More than just the two of us. Romantic relationships are never just about two people. They are supported and nurtured - and yes, sometimes hindered - by the relationships they already have. Compelling stories about adolescent love should portray these supports and the ways in which other relationships might work against them, too.
Zoom out. Social inequality plays a role in romantic relationships, as it does in every portrayal of adolescent development. Highlighting the big-picture social conditions that threaten positive relationship outcomes can help build tension in a more authentic portrayal of the challenges adolescents face, even when they have strong connections to each other. The now classic 2000 movie Love and Basketball does this brilliantly, in two ways. First, it is a thoughtful exploration of how gender norms play a role in romantic relationships. Second, it indirectly speaks to the ways in which stories about young people of color are marginalized in film by not making racism the central storyline.
Highlight positive identity development. Romantic relationships are a productive vehicle for identity exploration, and can be used to convey the importance of staying true to that identity. For instance, in the movie The Duff, main character Bianca holds her ground after a superficially cruel insult from classmates, and ends up rewriting the social order while finding romance in the process.
Don’t sell out for laughs. Sure, adolescent romance is rich territory for mining jokes, but there’s a fine line between extracting the universally human humor in them and trivializing them. So far, the new Mindy Kaling series The Sex Life of College Girls, finds this middle ground. Though it certainly portrays the messiness of college-age relationships and sex, it counter-balances these with real moments that illustrate the importance of romance to healthy self-discovery.
Freelancer
How a masculine culture that favors sexual conquests gave us today’s ‘incels’
This article originally appeared on The Conversation on June 6, 2018.
After the recent shooting at the Santa Fe, Texas, high school, the mother of one of the victims claimed that the perpetrator had specifically killed her daughter because she refused his repeated advances, embarrassing him in front of his classmates. A month prior, a young man, accused of driving a van into a crowded sidewalk that killed ten people in Toronto, posted a message on Facebook minutes before the attack, that celebrated another misogynist killer and said: “The Incel Rebellion has already begun!”
These and other mass killings suggest an ongoing pattern of heterosexual, mostly white men perpetrating extreme violence, in part, as retaliation against women.
To some people it might appear that these are only a collection of disturbed, fringe individuals. However, as a scholar who studies masculinity and deviant subcultures, I see incels as part of a larger misogynist culture.
Masculinity and sexual conquest
Incels, short for “involuntary celibates,” are a small, predominately online community of heterosexual men who have not had sexual or romantic relationships with women for a long time. Incels join larger existing groups of men with anti-feminist or misogynist tendencies such as Men Going Their Own Way, who reject women and some conservative men’s rights activists, as well as male supremacists.
Such groups gather in the “manosphere,” the network of blogs, subreddits and other online forums, in which such men bluntly express their anger against feminists while claiming they are the real victims.
Incels blame women for their sexual troubles, vilifying them as shallow and ruthless, while simultaneously expressing jealousy and contempt for high-status, sexually successful men. They share their frustrations in Reddit forums, revealing extremely misogynist views and in some cases advocating violence against women. Their grievances reflect the shame of their sexual “failures,” as, for them, sexual success remains central to real manhood.
The popular 2005 film “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” nicely illustrates the importance of sexual success, or even conquest, to achieving manhood, as a group of friends attempts to rectify the protagonist’s failure while simultaneously mocking him and bragging about their own exploits. “Getting laid” is a rite of passage and failure indicates a failed masculinity.
Cloaked in the anonymity of online forums, incels’ frustrations become misplaced anger at women. Ironically, while they chafe under what they perceive as women’s judgment and rejection, they actually compare themselves to other men, anticipating men’s judgment. In other words, incels seek to prove themselves to other men, or to the unrealistic standards created by men, then blame women for a problem of men’s own making. Women become threats, cast as callous temptresses for withholding sex from, in their perception, deserving men.
Entitlement
If heterosexual sex is a cultural standard signifying real manhood for a subset of men, then women must be sexually available. When unable to achieve societal expectations, some lash out in misogynist or violent ways. Sociologists Rachel Kalish and Michael Kimmel call this “aggrieved entitlement,” a “dramatic loss” of what some men believe to be their privilege, that results in a backlash.
Noting that a disproportionate number of mass shooters are white, heterosexual and middle class, sociologist Eric Madfis demonstrates how entitlement fused with downward mobility and disappointing life events provoke a “hypermasculine,” response of increased aggression and in some case violent retribution.
According to scholar of masculinity Michael Schwalbe, masculinity and maleness are, fundamentally, about domination and maintaining power.
Given this, incels represent a broader misogynist backlash to women’s, people of color’s and LGBTQI people’s increasing visibility and representation in formerly all-male spheres such as business, politics, sports and the military.
Despite the incremental, if limited, gains won by women’s and LGBTQI movements, misogyny and violence against women remain entrenched across social life. Of course not all men accept this; some actively fight against sexism and violence against women. Yet killings such as those in Toronto and Santa Fe, and the misogynist cultural background behind them, remind many women that their value ultimately lies not in their intelligence and ideas, but in their bodies and sexual availability.
Fringe men or mainstream misogyny?
Dismissing incels and other misogynist groups as disturbed, fringe individuals obscures the larger hateful cultural context that continues in the wake of women’s, immigrants’, LGBTQI’s and people of color’s demands for full personhood.
While most incels will not perpetrate a mass shooting, the toxic collision of aggrieved entitlement and the easy availability of guns suggests that without significant changes in masculinity, the tragedies will continue.
The incel “rebellion” is hardly rebellious. It signals a retreat to classic forms of male domination.
Associate Professor, Grinnell College
This article originally appeared on The Conversation.
Does Hollywood Need Guns?
Guns have been an iconic prop of Hollywood storytelling since the early days of the industry. The genre of gangster movies of the 1930s could not have existed without guns, and the same for the popular TV Westerns of the 1950s. What made those stories engaging was the melding of guns with narratives that were true to their genre. Gangsters need guns just as much as the inhabitants of the Wild West. But in today’s world, the proliferation of guns is creating a crisis of major proportions. The ease with which Americans can obtain assault-style guns is turning our cities into the wild west once glorified in the Westerns of the 1950’s.
While it is difficult to disentangle the role that Hollywood storytelling has on the growth of gun use in the U.S., there is no doubt that gun use has proliferated in popular movies and TV shows, especially in crime-related genres. In our research over the past decade at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, we have documented the rise in gun portrayal in popular PG-13 movies and TV-14 television shows. We have also shown that the use of guns in popular screen narratives is seen as acceptable by parents of children ages 15 and older when the guns are used for justified reasons. These include defending oneself or friends and family from others who pose a threat. When Bruce Willis in the Die Hard franchise shoots the bad guys even indiscriminately, he is seen as a hero worthy of emulation.
These attitudes are also observable in young viewers of these kinds of violent entertainment. In a study we conducted with late adolescents, ages 18 to 22, we found that viewing movie clips of justified gun violence was tracked by areas of the brain typically associated with approval. But when the gun violence was seen as unjustified, young people’s brains displayed a pattern more in keeping with disapproval.
We think these findings point to problems with Hollywood’s glorification of guns. Unlike other consumer products, guns are not advertised to the general public on major forms of media. You will not see an ad for a gun on TV or in popular magazines. The gun industry doesn’t need those sources of marketing when it can rely on Hollywood to feature guns as a justified form of self-defense. Not only does Hollywood promote guns, but it also increases fears of crime when it shows the need for guns as a form of protection.
We know that such portrayals are more likely to influence young viewers who are learning about the world through screen media. Research conducted in the 2000s found that adolescents who viewed a lot of films that featured smoking were more likely to initiate smoking. We do not have similar research on guns. But we have looked at changes in gun use in popular TV shows from 2000 to 2018 and found that as the proportion of gun use in violent scenes increased over that time, the proportion of homicides committed with guns also increased, especially for young people ages 15 to 24.
The film industry responded to concerns about featuring smoking in movies by reducing the use of unnecessary use of cigarettes, especially in PG-13 movies that do not restrict viewing. Why can’t the industry do the same for guns? In other words, do we really need to rely on guns to make violent stories appealing? Can’t Hollywood tell compelling stories about crime without overdoing the use of guns?
Dan Romer
Research Director, Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Embracing Technology as a Tool for Healthy Attachments in Adolescence
Thirteen-year-old Kayla is dragged away from her social media by the interruption of her father's voice at the dinner table. Dad is trying to connect but Kayla rejects him, preferring the world inside her phone. At first glance, this scene in the 2018 film Eighth Grade feeds into common stereotypes that teens are bewitched by social media, which causes them to withdraw from their parents and become obsessed with peers. But does technology really take adolescents away from parents?
To understand this question, our research team in the department of psychology at UC Santa Cruz, designed a daily diary study to look at how teenagers are balancing time with parents and friends through face-to-face and computer-mediated communication. Contrary to stereotypes, our study found that adolescents who spent more time communicating with friends via technology also spent more, not less, time with parents compared to those who had less contact with friends. Likewise, Eighth Grade ultimately rejects the idea that adolescents use technology to get away from parents and instead paints an authentic portrait of how teens use their phones to explore new horizons while maintaining closeness with parents. In one illustrative example, Kayla uses technology to connect with her peer group but when she is upset and wants to leave the pool party of a popular girl at her school, her dad is just a phone call away to support her.
The teenage years are important for the expansion of healthy attachments, which includes feelings of emotional support, trust, and commitment in close relationships alongside feelings of autonomy and a sense of personal boundaries. Attachment styles begin to develop in the early stages of life based on interactions between infants and their caregivers. When babies receive predictable and appropriate care, they will begin to develop a secure attachment style in which they feel safe enough to explore their expanding world and trust they can seek the close support of an adult when in need. If these basic needs are not met, a child may develop an anxious or insecure attachment style in which they lack the ability to depend on their parents, creating a pattern of behavior that impacts how secure and confident they will feel in future social relationships. The nature of attachment shifts during adolescence and the crucial task is for parents to recognize their child’s growing needs for autonomy—adolescents who feel that their parents respect their personal choices are more likely to feel emotionally close to parents and will transfer that healthy balance of closeness and autonomy to future relationships.
In the latter half of the 20th century in Western cultures, adolescents’ development of emotional attachments to friends and romantic partners has been marked by greater distance from parents. Might we see less distance from parents with the convenience and portability of communication technologies making it easy for adolescents to stay connected while exploring on their own? Our study asked 169 high schoolers, ages 14 to 18, to complete daily diary surveys about their social interactions before bed for six consecutive days. On the last day of the study, the teens filled out a survey about their relationships with friends and parents. The survey also included scales to assess adolescents’ feelings of autonomy in relationships with their parents. The results suggested that technology can be used to enhance both autonomy and closeness during periods of transition in parent-adolescent attachments. The more adolescents communicated with friends and parents via technology, the more face-to-face time and emotional closeness they had with them. The study also found that the more teens communicated with their parents via technology, the more they felt a combination of autonomy and emotional closeness with them. Teens who texted more frequently with friends were more likely to make decisions independently from parents. Contrary to fears that technology is making us less social, our findings illustrate how digital tools are helping teens connect in new ways that honors their growing needs for autonomy. In Eighth Grade, Kayla illustrates these findings when she develops new friendships with older high schoolers and a boy in her grade. As a result of this independence, Kayla spends more time socializing with her dad, too.
Thinking of the phone as a transitional object is helpful for understanding how teens are balancing autonomy and closeness with parents in the digital age. During childhood, transitional objects offer children more independence while also providing connectedness and safety. Transitioning a child’s human contact through an object like a blanket or toy reminds them of their parents. Likewise, a smartphone provides the same support for teens. Not only does the phone create opportunities for freedom, it also grounds teens - like we see with Kayla at the pool party in Eighth Grade - in knowing they can connect with their parents anytime and anywhere, which may lay the foundation for ongoing secure attachment with parents even as teens form new emotional attachments outside the family.
Take Away Message for Storytellers
Eighth Grade parallels our research by showing that Kayla’s phone provides her new opportunities for socioemotional growth and social identity in her journey from childhood to adulthood. Eighth Grade resists exploiting the idea that adolescents use technology to replace parents with friends. Instead, it shows a true to life image of teens using social media to navigate their complex worlds of friends and family. This is what Eighth Grade does so well—it shows how important communication technologies are for Kayla’s growing independence and for her feelings of trust and support with her dad during a somewhat turbulent time of transition. The film makes a deliberate choice to show how Kayla uses communication technologies to support, not hinder her development. Our research also supports this more positive view of communication technologies. Ultimately, storytellers should continue to find ways to portray teens using digital tools for both autonomy and closeness, seeing these goals as compatible rather than contradictory.
Actionable Insights
Show characters in parent-child relationships engaging in healthy online communication
Show young characters using technology to connect offline in face-to-face interactions with friends and family
Show adolescent characters who use technology to gain independence and maintain closeness with their parents
Zoe Peterson
Department of Psychology, UC Santa Cruz
Adriana Manago, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology, UC Santa Cruz
Collaborator of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers
Based on the article: Manago, A.M., Brown, G., Lawley, K., Anderson, G. (2020). Adolescents’ daily face-to-face and computer-mediated communication: Associations with autonomy and closeness to parents and friends. Developmental Psychology, 56, 153-164.