amazons' the wilds proves that we are seriously failing teenage girls.

the introduction to amazon's new show, the wilds, really hit home for a lot of reasons. not because the show is essentially about young girls being stranded on deserted island. not because the girls had to fend for themselves with barely any food or fresh water. not even because they're obviously extremely traumatized from what happened on the island and being forced to relate what happened to two grown men. it is because of how each of the girls talk about how they were better off on the island alone because of how poorly they were treated by society before they fully cut off from it.

 

each episode focuses on a different girl and the very different experiences they've had that led them to getting put on the plane that crashed-landed on the island that they're currently inhabiting. one of the girls is named leah, (sarah pidgeon) who is dealing with her first heartbreak. it's very real and very painful, but, what we learn later (which those mf annoyingly scientists gloss over), is that her relationship was with a 30-year old man. she is very evidently, the main character of the group. we spend the most time with her outside of the group and she is the one that leads the monologue that sets up one of the most important parts of the show: that, we, as a society, are failing teenage girls.

 

"here's what i remember. i remember not being enough. i remember wanting to be more. i remember the dark moods. the violent moods. the moods nobody had any patience for. and then there was the brutal social scene, which some girls could just glide through. they belonged everywhere and you were just trying to belong somewhere. i remember the ridiculous expectations they had for us, like we were supposed to be these golden gods 24/7. i remember the responsibilities, heavy burdens meant for adults, forced upon us before out time; responsibilities, that make you think, "yeah this is definitely fucking with my healthy development right now." and don't get me started on the impossible problem of sex. if you were terrified of it, which you had every reason to be, you'd be deemed a frigid chastity bitch, but if you were unafraid, like it was just naturally your thing, then god, help you. the world is dangerous place for a sexually evolved girl. and on top of that there was this new feeling; this sick, ugly feeling of wanting to love and to be loved back, which never ends well, so if we're talking about what happened out there, then, yeah, there was trauma. but being a teenage girl in normal ass america, that was the real living hell.

and leah is right. she later states something along the lines of "when you go looking for our trauma, don't go look on that fucking island." obviously, a plane crash is more than traumatic enough to send someone over the edge, but we soon find out at the end of the first episode (which this isn't a spoiler, its in the amazon description), the plane crash was faked. these girls will not be finding their way off the island because that's where were supposed to be there in the first place. 

 

although the girls are pitted against each other for survival, it is clear that all of them are victims; not only to society, but also to gretchen kline (rachel griffiths) who is the mastermind behind the plane crash. at its core, the island is a fucked up social experiment that gretchen believes will help the girls become their true selves. much like in leah's monologue, gretchen recognizes that young women are not only pushed to extreme lengths to become who society says they should be, but she decides the solution is to forcibly strip them of those societal expectations....while they are also struggling to survive??

 

its a flawed theory because not only does it feel like a full crime (and probably is to some extent), but what she fails to realize is that she is using these girls in the same way that society does: as tools. 

the most damaging thing of it all is that all of this suffering that teenage girls are subjected to is often written off as a "rite of passage. its a cycle of harm that starts early and will affect them when they're much older. moreover, its all written of as just this normal teenage experience, but the things these girls have to deal with are not normal and the ways that the adults around them try to pacify their daughters' feelings is also not normal. well, they are, but they shouldn't be. these girls are kids, but they're not allowed to simply be kids. they're working physically demanding jobs to support their families. they're taking care of their family members when they have no one else to turn to. they're pushing their bodies to the limit in order to succeed or be pushed aside for someone younger, smaller and more fit. they're told to smile in the face of death. they're told to be perfect, pretty, agreeable. they're taught to never let anyone else see any other side of them or they'd have to face the consequences. what these are consequences, you ask? 

 

rejection.

 

rejection from their peers. rejection from their families. rejection from potential lovers. rejection from the world.

teenage girls are introduced to rejection at a very early age. however, instead of being taught on how to cope with it, they're taught about how to avoid it. they're taught how to combat it. they're taught how to behave, so that they won't have to face rejection, but the world is already stacked against them from the moment they're able to think for themselves, so its only a losing battle from there. and as for the girls on the island, the things they're being led to believe on this island is all a lie.  the island isn't real. the food they find is sourced to them on a schedule. they're working on a timeline that they are not aware of. one day they will have to return home and although they have grown from their experiences, they will either have to bring those home and adapt or revert completely back into their old lives, but like leah says, "what was so fucking great about the lives we left behind?"

 

obviously there is much about these girls that is left to the imagination. there are other girls dealing with situations unlike leah's and my own. rachel (reign edwards) is dealing with an eating disorder as a result of her trying to stay fit for diving. nora (helena howard) is her doting sister who is grappling with her sister's disorder. shelby (mia healey) is a budding teen pageant star who has been primed her whole life to be perfect and sweet and realizes that's not what she wants. these are just a few of the girls, but there are a few more who are also dealing with their own significant life traumas. the island squad features various people of color, including two Native American characters, but the thing that rings true to all these girls is that regardless of how they feel about what is going on in their lives, they're never quite taken seriously by anyone around them; they're always told how they should handle the things that are happening to them.

don't be angry. don't be sad. don't do this. don't do that. be like this. this kind of judgemental and controlling behavior is what the girls begin emulate on each other because its what's been taught to them their entire lives. however, its not till they get to the island that they realize that no one is judging them except each other and moreover, that they don't have to be that way. they can simply just be themselves.

and that means a lot when we have girls coming from a society that tells them that their interests are not good enough; that the things that make them happy are not good enough; that they are not good enough. when teenage girls have interests, they're always deemed as less important. think about the ways that popular YA media is shunned by general public even though its not catered to them. black christmas (2020). the craft: legacy. twilight. after. the kissing booth. these are examples of media that is catered to teenage girls that absolutely no one takes seriously. people are generally just like, "OH THIS WASN'T THE STUFF I WAS USED TO WHEN I WAS A TEEN, SO IT MUST BE GARBAGE. like, no, you just grew up without instagram or twitter or the studios fear of audiences being alienated by an R rating. you grew up with aol messenger and yahoo music and sex and gore on your televisions without having to pay extra to watch it on HBO Max or Netflix. i watched the poughkeepsie tapes (2007) MYSPACE for god's sake, so, no, the female-led, cheesy, teeny bopper movies are not for you, 30-year-old movie letterboxd movie critics trashing it online.

 

and it doesn't mean that these films deserve any oscars, but they deserve some semblance of respect for the sake of their audience. the kissing booth is an awful movie. period. there's truly not much to say on it except that its source material was a 15-year old's story on wattpad. therefore, not only is that beyond my age demographic to understand, but there is probably an entire world of things that went into it that most people know nothing about. the girl who wrote the book could talk about these things, but no one will listen to them because 30-year-olds trashed the movie online consistently. in the case of 2020's feminist-slasher romp, black christmas, it was a film geared to get young girls into horror. however, as with the kissing booth, it was written off as a joke compared to the 90s version because no one could see it as its own thing: a thing for an entirely different generation of teens. i mean, the films are rated PG-13 for a reason. 

 

however, regardless of the topic, the most important take from engaging with YA media is that we should be listening to the people that the media is FOR, not silencing them with out takes because they're seemingly superior because we are older; because they aren't and we aren't. superior, that is. there's often this impulsive that many adults, especially cis-men (yes, this is still for you 30-year old letterboxd-ers) to harshly critique YA media simply because its for teens. we think they want to see and engage with all of the things that shaped us, but, frankly, the things we liked may be a little outdated and that's fine. this doesn't mean we have to sit back and accept the slew of wattpad-dramas-turned-netflix-originals as these cinematic masterpieces, but we can work to unpack how they work for a younger audience in both a critical and empathic manner. 

the wilds is an example of a show that is helping older audiences do both. not only because the show is just good, but because it doing it in way that allows use to view the damage we've caused young girls in the first place. and that while we may have a long way to go reverse that damage, its only if we can begin to, instead of trying to think like them, really listen to what they have to say and help them heal in the process.