Teen Reality: Laid Bare

Give them confidence to cope with life’s mysteries, the wonder, the highs and the lows. Listen to them. Don’t always speak-down. Make them your friends and buddies. Give them the flexibility to find their way. Give value to their thirst for things you don’t understand. Laugh with them. Learn with them. There is much to learn from our youngsters.

By Aayushi Rana

Since it was being talked about by all concerned, I sat down and watched the much-talked-about series Adolescence.

This is not a review.

I am a 26-year-old woman, a journalist, and a former educator who has worked with students of the same age group shown in the series. I have witnessed it firsthand.

The chats. The picture sharing. Snapchat. The shaming. The insecurity. The need to be popular. The insatiable search for ‘likes’.

I have seen how a single message can change the course of a teenager’s life. How the pressure to be accepted, to belong, can make teenagers lose themselves.

Adolescence does not sensationalize these realities; it simply holds up a mirror to them.

A Teacher’s POV

After watching the series, I sat frozen, staring at the black screen of the last episode. The weight of what I had just seen settled heavily in my chest.

So what was it that triggered me to write this?

Multiple things. This series has covered everything we fail to talk about with our children as parents, fail to understand as educators, and cannot even fathom as adults.

The reviews of Adolescence are everywhere. You can read them. But what I feel compelled to discuss is the part of our new society this series lays bare. It’s not just the UK. It’s in every school, every group chat, every teenage social circle in the world.

Actor and co-producer Graham’s statement in the series — What goes on inside our kids' rooms, we don’t know. Whether they are watching porn, you don’t know. We cannot keep an eye on them 24 hours a day — stuck with me. It was a stark reminder of something I have always known -- but never said aloud.

We can’t monitor every moment. We shouldn’t have to. However, the fact is, in today’s hyper-connected world, the gaps in our knowledge are more dangerous than ever.

I have been a teenager. I have faced bullying in school. I know how difficult it is. How suffocating. How relentless! To wake up every morning and face the same classmates who demean you, who laugh at you, who chip away at your self-worth -- piece by piece.

This series shows that the problem is bigger than just bullying. It’s about society as a domino effect—parents, social media influencers, platform owners, teachers, students—all interconnected. If one piece falls, the entire structure crumbles.

A Parent’s Nightmare

Episode 3 is a parent’s worst fear coming to life. The show exposes the reality that surrounds our children, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. And this is not just fiction—these things are happening.

Knife crime statistics are chilling. In one year alone, over 18,000 knife-related crimes were recorded, with 17.3 per cent of offenders being between the ages of 10 and 17. Just days after Adolescence was released, a real-life case shook UK —a 15-year-old boy convicted of attempting to murder a 14-year-old girl with a samurai-style sword.

The show’s most unsettling moment is when a teenager, moments before committing murder, claims he should be admired for not sexually assaulting his victim first. That sentence lingers. It reveals something deeply disturbing about how violence and toxic masculinity intertwine in young minds.

The Voices that Matter

Beyond statistics and headlines, Adolescence is most powerful in how it captures the personal, intimate, private experiences of teenagers today.

Tanya, BTech Student:

"Adolescence is a heartbreaking and painfully real look at how a boy like Jamie Miller—just 13 years old—can end up at the center of a tragedy no one saw coming. Through stunning one-shot episodes, the series pulls you into Jamie’s world, where the internet becomes both an escape and a dangerous influence, feeding him toxic ideas when he’s at his most vulnerable. At school, relentless bullying chips away at his self-worth, while at home, parental neglect leaves him feeling invisible. Owen Cooper’s performance is devastatingly honest. Adolescence isn’t just a show—it’s a mirror reflecting the dark corners of modern adolescence, and it lingers with you long after the screen fades to black."

Sahil Rana, MA in English Literature:

"The ‘manosphere’ thing feels unsettling. A lot of it sounds like frustration masked as advice, and while some guys in there are just lost and looking for guidance, a lot of it looks like blame, control, and dangerous ideas about relationships. It worries me because I have a sister growing up in this world, and I don’t ever want her to believe that her worth depends on how others see her or that she has to shrink herself to be loved. My biggest fear is that she might listen to the wrong voices—the ones that make her doubt herself or accept less than she deserves. The only way I know to keep her safe is to talk to her. Really talk. So she knows she can always come to me. I want her to understand what real respect looks like, to recognize manipulation when she sees it, and to trust her instincts when something feels wrong. More than anything, I just want to be there so she never feels like she has to figure it all out alone."

Respect the Age Rating

Adolescence is rated 15+ for a reason. Not because of explicit content, but because of its emotional intensity. Younger children, or teenagers, may not be ready as yet to process what they see.

If you watch It with your Teen...

Don’t just watch. Talk.

What stood out?

What scared or challenged them?

What would they do differently?

This is how you build emotional intelligence, not just fear-driven awareness.

Empower, Don’t Scare

Your goal isn’t to shock them into obedience. Empower them with wisdom, equality and emotional strength. Give them respect and love. Deep, infinite love.

Give them confidence to cope with life’s mysteries, the wonder, the highs and the lows. Listen to them. Don’t always speak-down. Make them your friends and buddies. Laugh with them. Learn with them. There is much to learn from our youngsters. Give them the flexibility to find their way. Give value to their thirst for things you don’t understand.

Fear-based parenting leads to silence. Empowered parenting creates safety, confidence and trust. And this equally applies to the classroom, in schools and campuses.

Adolescence doesn’t have all the answers. It doesn’t tell us how to fix the mess we have made of the addictive digital world in these fragmented, alienating, modern times, where everything becomes so easily ephemeral and transitory – bereft of a deeper meaning which stays. But it forces us to confront it.

And, maybe, just maybe, that’s the first step toward change.

---

Aayushi Rana has done her postgraduate in History from Aligarh Muslim University. She is a Senior Researcher and Fact-Checker, based in Delhi. She is also a Digital Forensics trainer, having conducted training sessions for journalists and students on misinformation, fake news, verification techniques and digital safety, in India and abroad. A former English and Social Sciences teacher at a prestigious private school in Delhi, her work currently focuses on media literacy and socio-political research.