For the purpose of making a point on the internet, please enjoy these story tidbits from my adolescent life:
Once, my friend wanted to find out what her crush really thought of her. Naturally, I struck up a conversation over AIM with him to get the scoop while my friend sat right next to me hoping for the deets.
My eighth grade birthday was the worst of my life, in part because some boys threw baby carrots at me for no apparent reason.
In sixth grade, I got a major feminine stain on a super trendy floor-length khaki maxi skirt. Rather than providing empathy, the school nurse scolded me for not having a pair of back-up pants stored in my locker for exactly this kind of nightmarish occasion.
What’s the point in sharing these stories with you, the sweet people of the internet? Well, if I were to guess, I’d say a lot of you out there have some similar stories. Stories of silly things you remember doing as a tween, mistakes you made with friends, clothes you can’t believe you wore, and embarrassments that changed your life.
The creators of Hulu’s comedy series Pen15 understand that and sometimes when you look back at these kinds of stories, all you can do is laugh. The show follows two middle school students, Anna and Maya, through their everyday lives in the year 2000. There are fashion faux-pas, misguided protests, run-ins with the popular crowd, and all kinds of other big moments that define the awkwardness of adolescence.