Is Coming of Age Based on Geography?

I recently realized,  after reading Tennis Lessons by British author Susannah Dickey, that I was very familiar with a lifestyle in a distant geography which I have never experienced. The narrator waiting for GCSE scores, attending an all girls Catholic school and celebrating at a pub after a long day of classes seems so dear and attainable despite never being experienced by me or by anyone I know. But what has changed from when the ultimate dream of any non-American teenager was to attend an American small town high school, be asked out for prom and homecoming and drive at the age of 15? 

Recently, media centering the “British Coming of Age” has become increasingly popular, with shows such as Skins resurfacing during early 2020s. The Irish coming of age has been dominating the media. Writers such as Sally Rooney and shows like Derry Girls gaining popularity have not only made the experience of being a teenager in Ireland more glamorized, but have also shone light on the Troubles, helping them become better understood and portrayed. What pieces of media have contributed to this shift in popularity, and what has helped them become the new young adult dream?

I have a theory that the cycle of awe and amazement towards teenage experiences in different countries—for those living outside of the US, UK and Central European countries—happens in three stages, targeting specific age groups. This theory in no way applies to the current generations of pre-teens since televised media targeting this audience is no longer consumed as much as it was during the early 2010s. I would argue that this fascination first begins in one's pre-teen years, where the child is exposed to TV shows and movies mostly broadcasted on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, featuring vibrant high school lives and diverse friend groups. Shows and movies such as High School Musical, Victorious and I-carly offered a slightly off-feeling transition to adolescence from childhood but also painted an image of a desirable and exciting high school experience which could only be achieved in the US. Decorated lockers, gym classes where everyone wore headbands and seemingly unhygienic and inconvenient lunch trays were not only high school experiences that foreign middle schoolers yearned to experience, but also glimpses of a foreign American life. 

During the adolescence of those born in early to mid 2000s , while Netflix was gaining popularity, TV shows such as Riverdale, 13 Reasons Why and the Vampire Diaries started to become household favorites. These series portrayed a side of the American high school experience that the aforementioned pieces of media did not, adding an element of mysticism and darkness to the small town American life. While more often than not having supernatural elements, they also spread a more realistic idea beyond the mysticism—that high school life was full of skipping classes, messy school fights and making out with insanely attractive people at house parties with red cups. Author John Green’s books were arguably the segway into this era even before they got turned into movies. The Fault in our Stars, Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska and Turtles All the Way Down were on almost every pre-teen girl's bookshelf and, for most, was the first introduction to mental illnesses and individuality complexes. 

Finally, in their later teen years, the same teenagers were exposed to American media such as Ladybird, Perks of Being a Wallflower and Edge of Seventeen. These were much less comedic compared to previous works targeting the audience and had much heavier philosophical and psychological undertones. These were not unexpected, since great literary American coming of age works such as The Catcher and the Rye and the Dead Poets Society had similar elements and predated them. They similarly tackled issues of coming of age but in an almost completely different world. I would argue that the release of Euphoria was what changed the narrative for American coming of age media, and the reason for that was how European and British-inspired the show was.

Skins, the 2007 British TV show about Sixth Form students in Bristol was the pioneer for seemingly messy, disturbing and gory teenage media. Skins explored themes of drug abuse, sexual assault, teen pregnancy, homophobia and mental illness much more realistically and seriously than any U.S TV show with the same audience ever had. This was all done in a witty and psychedelic manner, without romanticizing the experience and rather showing the disgusting sides of all that was happening. None of the characters were particularly likable, but that didn’t stop many teenagers from glamorizing mentally ill and problematic characters such as Effy Stonem and Cassie, both of whom suffered from mental illnesses. Though presenting such characters to an impressionable audience was not the most pedagogical move, it was undeniably a much more realistic representation of the people one would meet during their high school years in a small town. Though Skins predated almost all of its American rivals, it was not until early 2020s that it started gaining popularity globally.

This completely contrasted with the picture American TV shows had painted of the careless high school years with no consequences; it pushed producers to search for messier plot-lines which similarly handled heavy topics. Euphoria, motivated as such, tried to become the American Skins, with a larger emphasis on drug abuse. It was able to encapsulate a more realistic view of American life, similar to On My Block and Moonlight, but also missed the element of realism while portraying a high school experience completely. It was more successful than Skins in creating characters to whom one could relate but was unable to place them into the context of high school life. 

Before Skins, there was a strong stereotype of elite and poshness surrounding the coming of age experience in Britain held up by American movies like Wild Child, which presented private boarding schools with luxury uniforms and mandatory cricket lessons. On the other hand, Skins was the most extreme of the shows that were portraying the coming of age experience in Britain. It was nothing like what had been shown by the American media to be the said experience, and instead it offered the raw and angst lives of everyday teens. 

In the late 2010s, the media surrounding Ireland was much more popular than those surrounding Britain. Derry Girls for instance, was a 2018 sitcom that explored the lives of teenagers living in London-Derry, a city in Northern Ireland, during the 1990s amid the Troubles. The show was much less “messy” and did not hold the same emotional weight that Skins had, but nonetheless had a huge political element to it, which was what gave the show its depth. In addition, late 2010s were a time for 80s and 90s nostalgia in the media, with many American shows and movies such as Lady Bird, Call me by Your Name, Pen15 and I am Not Okay With This being set in that era. This nostalgia went beyond the US, and allowed for the creation of revolutionary shows for their respective countries such as Love101 in Turkey and Slova Patsana in Russia, which I could not avoid mentioning while on the topic of coming of age media. They changed the narrative of what TV shows could and could not discuss and explored the countries’ mostly untold pasts. 

Sally Rooney was a very influential author when it came to supporting the shift of popularity towards the British and Irish coming of age. With all her books set in Ireland, Sally Rooney almost created a new genre of novels—the scenery of which has now become all too familiar to her readers, such as Temple Bar and Trinity College. Her books dive deep into the lives of Irish young adults while discovering themes already conquered by authors such as John Green from a completely different and more mature perspective. This seemingly new genre filled the gap that arose during the transition from young adult books of authors such as John Green and general Wattpad novels, to “mature” literature which I cannot exactly put a finger on. Rooney offers a relatively light-hearted look on love lives and daily struggles of university students in their 20s, without lacking depth. It just so happened that these books were set in Ireland and not the U.S, which strengthened the romanticization of Ireland and Britain as a coming-of-age capital. Interestingly, Trinity College Dublin saw a 10% increase in their applications following the release of Normal People, further demonstrating how powerful this newly discovered coming of age media. 

Though not much of European media has had a global impact as influential as Skins or Normal People, the Norwegian show Skam had a popularity reign worth mentioning. Despite there being seven remakes, the original Skam was set in Norway and followed the lives of a high school friend group and dealt with themes such as teen pregnancy, drug abuse and Islamophobia. It had fights, club scenes and breakdowns, all of which largely resembled Skins. It had unique elements that Skins had missed to incorporate, such as sensitivity towards the themes that had been discussed and the deterrence of them. 

In my opinion, there are three stages of televised media consumption in adolescence, and those set in Britain and Ireland can be categorized under the fourth stage. While media produced for pre-teen and early teen years is largely based on the glamorization of the American high school experience, the third stage shifts the tides. This stage is the stage with the largest variety of media consumption options, being the stage of transition from teenage years to adulthood. While there are certain pieces still set in the US, it is much more global.

As mentioned earlier, the rise to popularity of media set outside of the US created a gap for new works which happened to be  produced by British and Irish creators and their coming of age stories. While having real world implications such as a shift in university preferences, this also allowed for a generation to realize that the dream of an American teenage-hood was as unrealistic as it was unattainable. In their transition to adulthood, many can now better appreciate the coming of age experiences their—or neighboring—countries have to offer, and learn about a larger scope of history and culture.