It seems like Hollywood is still not ready to fully embrace the awkwardness of puberty in its portrayal of teens. A recent analysis led by Kate Stewart, a communication Ph.D. student at the Ohio State University, revealed a stark mismatch between the experiences of real-life adolescents and those depicted in popular coming-of-age movies. The study, which scrutinized 53 films released between 2012 and 2021, found a noticeable absence of physical puberty traits among the characters, with only a handful grappling with issues like body hair and acne.
According to Stewart, what films consistently fail to do is to accurately represent those throes of adolescence that teens are desperately trying to navigate. "In a perfect world we would see comforting, reassuring, informative depictions of these types of things," Stewart told Ohio State News. The study points out that when teens repeatedly see these idealized portrayals, it could start shaping their expectations and interactions with the world.
The films analyzed included titles like "Lady Bird," "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters," and "The Fault in Our Stars," all of which feature high school-aged protagonists. Interestingly, the actors themselves were often markedly older than their on-screen counterparts, with ages ranging from 16 to 28 years old. Out of these, only 10 lead actors were actually high school-aged at the time of filming. Stewart's findings suggest there's a serious disconnection between on-screen teenage lives and the rollercoaster of real adolescent experiences.
What's more, the research unveiled that there's an overemphasis on romance in these narratives, something that teens are reportedly growing tired of. Citing a 2024 report by the Center for Scholars and Storytellers, Stewart highlighted that a significant majority of adolescents, around 63.5%, expressed a preference for seeing stories focused on friendships and platonic relationships over unnecessary romantic plot lines. These numbers underline the desire for more relatable and realistic screen stories that mirror their own lives and development.
The work of researchers like Stewart and her co-author, Nicole Martins of Indiana University, is pivotal in sparking a conversation about the potential positive impacts of rendering adolescence on screen with greater authenticity. "Our hope is that the industry will begin to weigh those pros and cons of allowing teen audiences to see puberty and more realistic changes," Stewart said in a statement obtained by Ohio State News. By calling attention to these issues, the expectation is to foster a media landscape where teens can find characters and situations that resonate more closely with their own journey through one of life's most turbulent stages.
