(Disclaimer: This article contains plot spoiler information)

Most of the time, shows involving lots of teens are just full of drama and bullying. Though they never dig deeper into some real-world problems. One show released in February of 2021 went in a completely different direction and tackled multiple deep issues. Although the show has a relatively sad background and dark-humor tone, it focuses on 5 main big issues: bullying, racism, abuse, running from your past, negative body image and self-harm, losing your virginity and finding your sexuality.

The show with a diverse family and darkly comic tone has a powerful plot that has multiple real-world problems and situations addressed. (Photo credit- Netflix)

The show is essentially about a family of three with a 13-year old girl who is more of an adult than her 20-year old mother. The single mom and her two children move to a small town in Massachusetts to have a new and better life. At the beginning of the show, Ginny, the teenage daughter, moves to a small town following her father’s death.

Ginny began at a new school, which is the main focus of the movie, and quickly made a few friends and love interests as her mother Georgia gets offered a job at the mayor’s office. The show mostly focuses on Ginny and her drama involving friends and boyfriends but they managed to include many real-world issues and create a connection between their audience on a different level.

1/5: Bullying

While the show mainly focuses on Ginny and Georgia and their mother-daughter relationship, Austin, Georgia’s son, has a hard time being accepted as himself in his new school. Austin was getting bullied by a fellow student for being described as “different”. Austin is a sweet young boy who at the beginning of the show only saw innocence. He was genuinely smart for his age, though he was unaware of how to handle the bullying correctly. In revenge, Austin ended up hurting the bully with a pencil. While bullying is often shown in the media, this specific situation showed the correct and incorrect ways to deal with situations like this. Georgia, being quite immature, didn’t seem to care that her son violently handled the situation while his big sister Ginny took charge and taught him the correct ways to stand up for himself.

2/5: Abuse

Although Georgia maintains a bad reputation, fans wonder how her past will affect her future in season 2. Georgia was in a situation similar to a lot of people across the globe. She lived within an abusive household and was on her own starting at the age of 14. Her past reflected on the person she grew up to be leading to “unresolved” murders of her lovers. This message reflects how an environment and situation can affect who the person grows up to be, addressing how abusive and bad situations can change a person and can make them violent from all the pain and fear they had gone through.

3/5: Body image/self-harm

The series shows how situations can impact how one feels about themselves. Abby, Ginny’s friend, has a hard time as her parents go through a divorce. She already struggled with her body image due to stereotypes but later became obsessed with becoming slimmer. As she struggled at home, she tried hard to keep things good with her group of friends. Unfortunately, Abby’s friends were preoccupied with their dramas and issues and saw her as annoying. This led to the body dysmorphia progressively getting worse –to the point where Abby resorted to duct-taping her thighs to be able to fit into her jeans. Body image issues and pressure, mostly with women, are an ongoing big issue in the real world. The show makes sure to show the importance of the topic and ways to reach out for help.

Aside from body image issues, Ginny and Georgia include the topic of self-harm. The show involved this topic in a realistic way for people to be able to understand and truly connect. When Ginny became more isolated and alone, she tended to resort to self-harm. A lot of teenagers today deal with the same issue daily. During all the drama, Ginny felt extremely lonely. Without someone to talk to and the sadness building up, mental health tends to get worse, which is exactly what they show in multiple events and characters.

4/5: Racism

The topic of racism is blowing up all over the news in the current time. Being a serious topic in the real world, involving this issue in the show drew lots of attention and more views. Ginny goes through a series of events involving her race. The plot dives deep into the topic involving the competition between Ginny and one of her love interests.

During an English class, Hunter, the love interest, scored higher on an essay than Ginny during the first stages of their relationship. Her score came in lower as she performed a spoken word poem rather than the assignment, a traditional essay. From the beginning of the series, it was shown that her teacher was racist as he picked on Ginny and made inappropriate comments in multiple situations due to Ginny’s position as the only dark-skinned person in the class. As he mentions racist and offensive words during class time, he often would follow up with the statement, “Right, Ginny?”. So when the essay scores were released, Hunter stated that he had won the contest, saying that because he was half White and half Taiwanese, it couldn’t have been for racist reasons. Like many real-world situations, Ginny felt as though it wasn’t the same, which essentially ended their relationship following up with more drama and clarification on race.

5/5: Losing virginity/discovering sexuality

A majority of the show focuses on Ginny’s complicated love triangle and her friends’ relationships. Like any other teenagers in the real world, teens within the show deal with thinking about losing their virginities and finding their sexual preferences. Through the chaos of Ginny’s love triangle, she was desperate to experience what other teenagers experienced. While in a developing relationship with Hunter, Ginny decided to sleep with her best friend’s brother, Marcus. 

But it doesn’t end there. Max, Marcus’ sister, began exploring her sexuality when she met a girl named Sophie. They quickly developed a relationship, though Max was in a rush to try things with a girl for the first time. Fortunately, Sophie sees that Max isn’t ready and makes sure to reassure her that it is okay and it won’t affect their relationship. After a while of dating, Max was finally ready to take her relationship to the next level. As lots of teenagers have the same thoughts that Ginny and Max did, the plot shows the good and bad when it comes to this topic. It also shows the correct ways to handle them in possibly different situations.

Shows that connect to the real world in any way tend to grab a wider range of audiences and create more emotion. (Photo credit- Netflix)

Although the show is overall chaotic and filled with lots of dark humor, it provides different ways and perspectives on situations people may be experiencing in their lives. It also spreads awareness of big issues a lot of people go through and provides a visual representation of how to get through those situations.