
Growing Up
By Joyce Slaton,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Sensitive docuseries relates teens' real-life challenges.
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Growing Up
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What's the Story?
Created by actor Brie Larson (Captain Marvel), GROWING UP takes aim at the difficult, messy, beautiful process of turning from a kid into an adult by interviewing a group of young people ages 18 to 22 about difficult moments in their past. Using a mixture of documentary filmmaking, reenactments with actors, and found footage, participants and directors dramatize experiences that ultimately brought maturity and wisdom to those who lived through them.
Is It Any Good?
This lovely and evocative docuseries uses a mixture of narration, dramatization, and imagery borrowed from other stories to tell sensitive stories about the life challenges of real teens. Growing Up begins simply, with director/creator Brie Larson gathering together her group of young participants in a room, and then encouraging them to talk about a difficult time in their past. Each narrates their own story (or sometimes they tell their tales together, as we see in the episode focused on best friends Clare and Isabel), and each participant gets their own episode to wrap up something that was hard, what they learned, and where they are now.
It sounds trite. It isn't. Some of the experiences these teens have had are intense (homelessness, bullying, severe depression) while others seem less so on the surface (two episodes center around young women learning to take pride in their unconventional individual beauty), but as in life, the problems only seem small to others judging from the outside. Given life and color by the young people who survived their travails and learned something from them, the stories are deeply relatable and moving. There are tears, hugs, and earnest declarations ... maybe some of them from the people watching, too.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the things these teens have been through, and the experiences in their own lives that are similar. What did participants learn about themselves? What lessons did you learn?
Have you or anyone you love been a victim of cyberbullying? Explain why the anonymity of the internet is a major cause. How does your family or your community deal with the issue? What, if any, resources are available to you if you become the object of bullying?
Do you relate to any of the participants? Do you need to share problems with someone in order to empathize with their issues? What common problems do all people share?
TV Details
- Premiere date: October 5, 2022
- Cast: Brie Larson
- Network: Disney+
- Genre: Reality TV
- Character Strengths: Courage , Empathy
- TV rating: TV-PG
- Award: Common Sense Selection
- Last updated: February 17, 2023
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