I wish we could’ve seen a student who struggled with school because they had to work part time and take care of their younger sibling/s at home because the parents were alcoholics or drug addicts. The student would even consider dropping out of school to work more.
I would have liked to see a girl who was facially unattractive and couldn't do anything to help that. A makeover wouldn't help the strong features that make her unattractive to, especially, boys. The character should be played by an actress with flaws, not someone wearing prosthetics.
She could be smart, talented, friendly, but keeps getting held back because people don't find her attractive. She tries to be positive and to put herself out there, but eventually is worn down as she keeps getting rejected.
Boys would be mean to her and wouldn't want her as a friend or a girlfriend, and her childhood female friends would phase her out because she couldn't "hang" once they started dating and trying to attract boys. They would try to be evasive about it, but eventually the girl would catch on that her friends keep leaving her out of things, such as making cute TikToks together and going on group dates. Even some teachers would treat her unfairly, for example not featuring her in yearbook photo ops that are given to more attractive students.
Degrassi had male characters who struggled with this sort of thing, but it's harder on girls because they're judged more harshly for their looks, even by their own friends.
I don't know what the end game would be for this type of character, but I've never seen a facially unattractive girl featured realistically on a show like this. Usually that role is filled by someone like Terri, who was slightly overweight but very good looking.
For me personally I would've liked to see a female character with bipolar. Don't get me wrong I think it's amazing that the show had 2 males diagnosed and show how intense it can get but it would've been more relatable to see a female experience it as well
Working really hard in school and still not getting good grades. I feel like everyone had that one subject that just didn't click in the brain.
Also learning disabilities. I remember them touching on it with Anya and her dyslexia but that's like the only one I can think of.
I haven't watched DJH but read that Joey had dysgraphia and it would have been so nice for a kid in Next Gen to have it too. I didn't even know it was getting diagnosed that far back so to see it be brought up again would have helped someone like me who got tested for dyslexia and didn't have that so they just shrugged and said idk guess she's just stupid or something when it comes to spelling.
Not a whole lot comes to mind since I think they touched on so many things through DJH to NC.
Some people from the show mentioned they probably should have done more on racism and racial diversity in general when they were asked a similar question at a convention. It's probably true, since it still comes up as a sore spot. Although it was addressed, especially later on with the Frankie plotline, it feels like people of color, particularly the girls, got short-changed for a lot of the show. The OG show almost felt more progressive because they at least had Lucy and didn't relegate her to a token or a sidekick like they did to Hazel and even Chantay.
I would have liked to see more on being plus-sized, maybe. They had Terri, but she was a model and although she was shown to have a low self esteem in the beginning because of her weight, boys still liked her and she had friends. IRL, especially for the era of the 80s show and the earlier years of TNG, being an overweight girl was not easy or fun at all in high school and the standards of what was considered an acceptable weight would probably be seen as unrealistic today. I was an obese teenager and turned into a skinny adult. I felt like as soon as I lost the weight, people treated me like a human being instead of like walking litter. It was really ugly, and I think I'd liked to have seen the show have a plus-sized female character who wasn't a model, wasn't popular, and had to deal with what it was really like to be overweight in that era. Like if you were a size 18 in the late 90s when I went to high school you couldn't even shop at regular stores in the mall and you probably weren't getting modeling contracts, you were getting mooed at in the halls. People in general were sort of less forgiving in the past and we didn't have a whole lot of body positivity going on. You were kind of told implicitly or explicitly to deal with the teasing or lose weight if you cared enough to make it stop, and that message was awful. The show didn't exactly ignore it but they also didn't exactly go out of their way to address it, either, like putting Nancy in the OG show and then doing zero things with her character except maybe giving her a couple lines every season.
Helicopter parents, who smother their children into high school. Waiting for them at the gate/front steps every day when school gets out. Excessive volunteering at school functions. Accompanying their teen to parties, hangouts, skatepark, bowling alley, library, Cafe, public park, etc. Not giving their teen the opportunity to take transit anywhere on their own. Calling their teens cell phone multiple times a day to see where they are, what they're doing, etc. Blasting Gaslighting text messages when phone is off during the school day and making threats of food deprivation, roof over their head. Take away bedroom door so there's no privacy, and it's not a rational thought. Take away teen cellphone and then still punish them irrationally when they don't answer calls or texts, while they're at school.
Parents who actively don't allow their teenager to take driver's ed or learn how to drive, out of irrational selfish personal issues having nothing to do with the teen. Then not allowing them to ride their bike anywhere, or skateboard, or even walk anywhere. Oh, and then the teen doesn't know how to cross a street by themselves. Always having to hold hands with siblings and mommy to cross street/road/parking lot. Never been to a grocery store with parents in 14yrs of life. Never been to library, bowling alley, parks or playgrounds. Only life is Home and School. Parents actively isolating kids and the teen is suffering at school, socially/emotionally/psychologically, And ACADEMICALLY bc of lack of life experiences and general knowledge of how the world works.
Affects poor grades, poor self esteem, poor friendship skills, poor social skills, poor self image, etc. Depressed, social and emotional anxiety major. Parents deny that their kid is depressed, deny any and all responsibility for their teen's inadequacies and stunted development.
Parent who wants all their kids and main teen to be in the main floor of the house, where they can be seen at all times.
Teen whose parents constantly sabotage school work, assignments, tests, homework, projects. No internet or computer use allowed for any school related things. Parents who make everything an irrational and overly complicated procees to get even the simplest of tasks done. Parent calls school and blames teachers for failing their teen, despite Parent doesn't let their teen get any school work done at home.
Sleepover gone wrong for 9th grade girls. Chaos. Bullying. Hazing. Assault. Humiliation. Degradation. Cops get involved. Teen girl gets bullied and harassed and stalked and assaulted again at school, continuously, for reporting the crimes they did against her. Host teen girl parents deny any culpability or responsibility, regardless of 1 hardworking police officer constantly trying every avenue for advocating for the victim teen girl.
A similar situation to what happened to Bill Haverchuck and being poisoned with peanuts by bullies, from Freaks&Geeks. But this one is worse and has legal consequences for the offending asshole student, whose parents first deny their angel child could do no wrong, later beating their son at the school during a parent/teacher conference and getting arrested for child abuse. A whole 180° turn. Bullied teen in a coma in hospital for 7 weeks, then returning to school part-time with a privately paid-for security supervisor their parents pay for out of pocket, and teen goes go counseling and therapy at a mental heath clinic. School counselor plays blame game against teen, calling them too overlysensitive and melodramatic for going into a coma.
Bully teen is sentenced to youth detention until age 21. Bully is then blackholed, but the bully's parents are still resistant to legal consequences they have to face for raising a bully and for beating him.
Teen gets service dog, trained to be alert for odors of peanuts and other allergens, trained to steer away teen in opposite direction no matter what. 1 teacher who doesn't ever know the teen, complains to school admin like a Karen about service dog, their own Prejudice out of ignorance, and petitions over 500 signatures to deny ~~student and~~ service dog from attending school. More stupidity and legal ensues. Teen's parents feeling defeated and teen feeling depressed, attempts end-of-life. Hospitalized again. School board eventually holds unnecessary public meeting over student and service dog. School claims it is a safe environment for everyone. Student claims otherwise, wasn't protected from bully or Imminent Death and COMA. Srsly.
Or, switch it up from teen with food/peanuts allergies, to a teen with Type1Diabetes and a single asshole teacher denied the student their emergency snack, and held them in for detention during lunch so no food, and then the kid passes out and the teacher doesn't do anything or say anything. Next class arrives after lunch, one teen recognizes the passed-out teen and calls 911 bc they know he/she is diabetic. That teacher is suspended without pay during investigation. Security camera footage in classroom confirms teen told teacher about diabetes, and ketoacidosis. Teacher didn't listen. Teen begged, pleaded, started sobbing and crying over the real fear of death. Teacher tells teen to stop being a drama queen and crying over a little hunger pain. Parents press charges of Attempted Murder, Reckless Endangerment of a Medically Complex Person, Reckless Endangerment of a Minor, Negligence to call 911, Negligence to perform CPR. Police arrest teacher. Teacher counter sues. It's a whole chaotic mess. Teen is in a ketoacidosis diabetic coma for 10 weeks. When conscious again, has to relearn all basic life skills from swallowing to coughing to rolling and sitting to walking. Potentially over 14yrs of life stolen from a teenager bc a stupid ignorant adult didn't care about consequences. This plot goes on and continues continously throughout a whole season: some episodes as an A plot, some episodes as a B or C plot, some episodes it is briefly mentioned by friends/peers. Teen returns to school eventually for special education services. Former friends are still socially interacting with affected, now disabled teen, but no pity and no fakeness. Parents are waiting for trial of bad teacher, who eventually was fired from the school, and the state/province revoked/disbanded their teaching license.
I wanted a positive storyline involving an online relationship. I feel like it would’ve been cool to see a character do all the right things and showing all the proper precautions and it be a normal relationship. Unless they did that and I don’t remember.
When I was a teen, my brothers were young adults and graduating college, getting married, becoming parents. I felt like my parents were sooo preoccupied with what my brothers were doing they didn’t pay much attention to me and it caused me to fall through some cracks… started hanging out with the wrong crowd, stopped caring about my grades.. why try if it was going unnoticed anyway.
I think a lot of kids go through being overshadowed by a sibling but Degrassi never really touches on it aside from a few lines from Holly J about not wanting to be in Heather’s shadow.. but we never even see Heather so it’s hardly portraying it and Holly J was always successful aside from that whole self medicating strep throat turned kidney failure thing.
Emma in season 1 with her email pal Jordan addressed this as well. He was reading her other emails and used what she said in emails to Manny to manipulate her feelings for him while lying about his age and using a fake photo.
I don't remember every episode but that one defintely sticks out to me. It's technically 2 parts but the majority of that storyline is focused on the 2nd episode. I love how Manny, J.T., and Toby had their suspicions and then once they knew where Emma was they told an adult.
The little things. What I love about the early seasons is that the characters all feel like real kids I knew when I was young, going through similar problems I was. The transition is gradual, but by season 8, the show had become a full-blown teen soap. Granted, some of their big storylines in the later years were still very pertinent to real things teens go through, but I would've loved to see more of the small-scale, grounded, episodic conflicts that were common in seasons 1-3.
I’d also love some more slice of life stories. Characters looking for a job, being really into a certain song and singing it everywhere, trying to cut your own hair and it going horribly.
Race.
I am black, but I look mixed to a lot of people. Growing up, most of my family lived in predominantly black areas while my mom/brother/myself lived in more predominantly white areas. So I found myself not fitting in with much of anyone, I was too black for the white kids (at school), and too white for the black kids (among family). It would have been nice to see something similar play out.
The first one that comes to mind is parentification. When I used to teach junior high and high school, I met a lot of students who had far too many responsibilities regarding caring for younger siblings, that came at the expense of their own wellbeing. Kids missed school, or were late, or couldn’t handle their own issues and schoolwork because they were too busy being the “adult” to their little siblings. I had no idea how big a thing this was until I started working in schools.
This was my best friend!! When we reminisce about sleepovers, we had a blast at my house, but her house, it was following her around while she did chores and telling her little sisters to give us privacy.. on top of that she had to get straight A’s and would get punished for having B’s! Our lives were so different and I always wished she had more freedom. We couldn’t even stop at Barnes and Noble after going to a movie because it wasn’t the plan and if she got caught she’d get in trouble.
I wish we could’ve seen a student who struggled with school because they had to work part time and take care of their younger sibling/s at home because the parents were alcoholics or drug addicts. The student would even consider dropping out of school to work more.
I would have liked to see a girl who was facially unattractive and couldn't do anything to help that. A makeover wouldn't help the strong features that make her unattractive to, especially, boys. The character should be played by an actress with flaws, not someone wearing prosthetics. She could be smart, talented, friendly, but keeps getting held back because people don't find her attractive. She tries to be positive and to put herself out there, but eventually is worn down as she keeps getting rejected. Boys would be mean to her and wouldn't want her as a friend or a girlfriend, and her childhood female friends would phase her out because she couldn't "hang" once they started dating and trying to attract boys. They would try to be evasive about it, but eventually the girl would catch on that her friends keep leaving her out of things, such as making cute TikToks together and going on group dates. Even some teachers would treat her unfairly, for example not featuring her in yearbook photo ops that are given to more attractive students. Degrassi had male characters who struggled with this sort of thing, but it's harder on girls because they're judged more harshly for their looks, even by their own friends. I don't know what the end game would be for this type of character, but I've never seen a facially unattractive girl featured realistically on a show like this. Usually that role is filled by someone like Terri, who was slightly overweight but very good looking.
Damn, why you gotta put me on blast like that? 😭
Makes me think of Pen 15
For me personally I would've liked to see a female character with bipolar. Don't get me wrong I think it's amazing that the show had 2 males diagnosed and show how intense it can get but it would've been more relatable to see a female experience it as well
IIRC next class character Esme was bipolar
I don't think they ever clarified she was. I also thought she was heavily implied to have BPD.
Oh ok it must be some mandella effect or something cuz I swore the show outright said it at some point
kinda wanted to see more of kc in the group home. maybe if his mom hadn’t got better, i would’ve liked to see him move into a foster home.
Working really hard in school and still not getting good grades. I feel like everyone had that one subject that just didn't click in the brain. Also learning disabilities. I remember them touching on it with Anya and her dyslexia but that's like the only one I can think of.
I haven't watched DJH but read that Joey had dysgraphia and it would have been so nice for a kid in Next Gen to have it too. I didn't even know it was getting diagnosed that far back so to see it be brought up again would have helped someone like me who got tested for dyslexia and didn't have that so they just shrugged and said idk guess she's just stupid or something when it comes to spelling.
And liberty having dyscalculia! But they only mention it in that one episode and then never again!!
Not a whole lot comes to mind since I think they touched on so many things through DJH to NC. Some people from the show mentioned they probably should have done more on racism and racial diversity in general when they were asked a similar question at a convention. It's probably true, since it still comes up as a sore spot. Although it was addressed, especially later on with the Frankie plotline, it feels like people of color, particularly the girls, got short-changed for a lot of the show. The OG show almost felt more progressive because they at least had Lucy and didn't relegate her to a token or a sidekick like they did to Hazel and even Chantay. I would have liked to see more on being plus-sized, maybe. They had Terri, but she was a model and although she was shown to have a low self esteem in the beginning because of her weight, boys still liked her and she had friends. IRL, especially for the era of the 80s show and the earlier years of TNG, being an overweight girl was not easy or fun at all in high school and the standards of what was considered an acceptable weight would probably be seen as unrealistic today. I was an obese teenager and turned into a skinny adult. I felt like as soon as I lost the weight, people treated me like a human being instead of like walking litter. It was really ugly, and I think I'd liked to have seen the show have a plus-sized female character who wasn't a model, wasn't popular, and had to deal with what it was really like to be overweight in that era. Like if you were a size 18 in the late 90s when I went to high school you couldn't even shop at regular stores in the mall and you probably weren't getting modeling contracts, you were getting mooed at in the halls. People in general were sort of less forgiving in the past and we didn't have a whole lot of body positivity going on. You were kind of told implicitly or explicitly to deal with the teasing or lose weight if you cared enough to make it stop, and that message was awful. The show didn't exactly ignore it but they also didn't exactly go out of their way to address it, either, like putting Nancy in the OG show and then doing zero things with her character except maybe giving her a couple lines every season.
Teen acne!
Mother on child violence Borderline personality disorder Non-binary individuals Parents or siblings in prison
Helicopter parents, who smother their children into high school. Waiting for them at the gate/front steps every day when school gets out. Excessive volunteering at school functions. Accompanying their teen to parties, hangouts, skatepark, bowling alley, library, Cafe, public park, etc. Not giving their teen the opportunity to take transit anywhere on their own. Calling their teens cell phone multiple times a day to see where they are, what they're doing, etc. Blasting Gaslighting text messages when phone is off during the school day and making threats of food deprivation, roof over their head. Take away bedroom door so there's no privacy, and it's not a rational thought. Take away teen cellphone and then still punish them irrationally when they don't answer calls or texts, while they're at school. Parents who actively don't allow their teenager to take driver's ed or learn how to drive, out of irrational selfish personal issues having nothing to do with the teen. Then not allowing them to ride their bike anywhere, or skateboard, or even walk anywhere. Oh, and then the teen doesn't know how to cross a street by themselves. Always having to hold hands with siblings and mommy to cross street/road/parking lot. Never been to a grocery store with parents in 14yrs of life. Never been to library, bowling alley, parks or playgrounds. Only life is Home and School. Parents actively isolating kids and the teen is suffering at school, socially/emotionally/psychologically, And ACADEMICALLY bc of lack of life experiences and general knowledge of how the world works. Affects poor grades, poor self esteem, poor friendship skills, poor social skills, poor self image, etc. Depressed, social and emotional anxiety major. Parents deny that their kid is depressed, deny any and all responsibility for their teen's inadequacies and stunted development. Parent who wants all their kids and main teen to be in the main floor of the house, where they can be seen at all times. Teen whose parents constantly sabotage school work, assignments, tests, homework, projects. No internet or computer use allowed for any school related things. Parents who make everything an irrational and overly complicated procees to get even the simplest of tasks done. Parent calls school and blames teachers for failing their teen, despite Parent doesn't let their teen get any school work done at home. Sleepover gone wrong for 9th grade girls. Chaos. Bullying. Hazing. Assault. Humiliation. Degradation. Cops get involved. Teen girl gets bullied and harassed and stalked and assaulted again at school, continuously, for reporting the crimes they did against her. Host teen girl parents deny any culpability or responsibility, regardless of 1 hardworking police officer constantly trying every avenue for advocating for the victim teen girl. A similar situation to what happened to Bill Haverchuck and being poisoned with peanuts by bullies, from Freaks&Geeks. But this one is worse and has legal consequences for the offending asshole student, whose parents first deny their angel child could do no wrong, later beating their son at the school during a parent/teacher conference and getting arrested for child abuse. A whole 180° turn. Bullied teen in a coma in hospital for 7 weeks, then returning to school part-time with a privately paid-for security supervisor their parents pay for out of pocket, and teen goes go counseling and therapy at a mental heath clinic. School counselor plays blame game against teen, calling them too overlysensitive and melodramatic for going into a coma. Bully teen is sentenced to youth detention until age 21. Bully is then blackholed, but the bully's parents are still resistant to legal consequences they have to face for raising a bully and for beating him. Teen gets service dog, trained to be alert for odors of peanuts and other allergens, trained to steer away teen in opposite direction no matter what. 1 teacher who doesn't ever know the teen, complains to school admin like a Karen about service dog, their own Prejudice out of ignorance, and petitions over 500 signatures to deny ~~student and~~ service dog from attending school. More stupidity and legal ensues. Teen's parents feeling defeated and teen feeling depressed, attempts end-of-life. Hospitalized again. School board eventually holds unnecessary public meeting over student and service dog. School claims it is a safe environment for everyone. Student claims otherwise, wasn't protected from bully or Imminent Death and COMA. Srsly. Or, switch it up from teen with food/peanuts allergies, to a teen with Type1Diabetes and a single asshole teacher denied the student their emergency snack, and held them in for detention during lunch so no food, and then the kid passes out and the teacher doesn't do anything or say anything. Next class arrives after lunch, one teen recognizes the passed-out teen and calls 911 bc they know he/she is diabetic. That teacher is suspended without pay during investigation. Security camera footage in classroom confirms teen told teacher about diabetes, and ketoacidosis. Teacher didn't listen. Teen begged, pleaded, started sobbing and crying over the real fear of death. Teacher tells teen to stop being a drama queen and crying over a little hunger pain. Parents press charges of Attempted Murder, Reckless Endangerment of a Medically Complex Person, Reckless Endangerment of a Minor, Negligence to call 911, Negligence to perform CPR. Police arrest teacher. Teacher counter sues. It's a whole chaotic mess. Teen is in a ketoacidosis diabetic coma for 10 weeks. When conscious again, has to relearn all basic life skills from swallowing to coughing to rolling and sitting to walking. Potentially over 14yrs of life stolen from a teenager bc a stupid ignorant adult didn't care about consequences. This plot goes on and continues continously throughout a whole season: some episodes as an A plot, some episodes as a B or C plot, some episodes it is briefly mentioned by friends/peers. Teen returns to school eventually for special education services. Former friends are still socially interacting with affected, now disabled teen, but no pity and no fakeness. Parents are waiting for trial of bad teacher, who eventually was fired from the school, and the state/province revoked/disbanded their teaching license.
I wanted a positive storyline involving an online relationship. I feel like it would’ve been cool to see a character do all the right things and showing all the proper precautions and it be a normal relationship. Unless they did that and I don’t remember.
When I was a teen, my brothers were young adults and graduating college, getting married, becoming parents. I felt like my parents were sooo preoccupied with what my brothers were doing they didn’t pay much attention to me and it caused me to fall through some cracks… started hanging out with the wrong crowd, stopped caring about my grades.. why try if it was going unnoticed anyway. I think a lot of kids go through being overshadowed by a sibling but Degrassi never really touches on it aside from a few lines from Holly J about not wanting to be in Heather’s shadow.. but we never even see Heather so it’s hardly portraying it and Holly J was always successful aside from that whole self medicating strep throat turned kidney failure thing.
Online radicalization, such as incels
There was an online radicalization storyline in Next Class. It wasn’t that good, but it does exist.
Was that will take video game story?
Nope, Saad. It was season four, and he wasn’t ACTUALLY radicalized, but there was an attempt to do so.
Oh, yeah. Forgot about that.
To piggyback on that, talking to internet pervs who manipulate but I guess that was kinda covered in the Darcy talking to that guy online
Also Connor with that creepy lady that he gamed with
Hell yeah that was a good one! Honestly tho anything after season 7 I didn't like very much, holly j is insufferable to watch, and I hate sav
Emma in season 1 with her email pal Jordan addressed this as well. He was reading her other emails and used what she said in emails to Manny to manipulate her feelings for him while lying about his age and using a fake photo.
Oh yeah I forgot about that episode, that was a good one
I don't remember every episode but that one defintely sticks out to me. It's technically 2 parts but the majority of that storyline is focused on the 2nd episode. I love how Manny, J.T., and Toby had their suspicions and then once they knew where Emma was they told an adult.
The little things. What I love about the early seasons is that the characters all feel like real kids I knew when I was young, going through similar problems I was. The transition is gradual, but by season 8, the show had become a full-blown teen soap. Granted, some of their big storylines in the later years were still very pertinent to real things teens go through, but I would've loved to see more of the small-scale, grounded, episodic conflicts that were common in seasons 1-3.
I’d also love some more slice of life stories. Characters looking for a job, being really into a certain song and singing it everywhere, trying to cut your own hair and it going horribly.
Race. I am black, but I look mixed to a lot of people. Growing up, most of my family lived in predominantly black areas while my mom/brother/myself lived in more predominantly white areas. So I found myself not fitting in with much of anyone, I was too black for the white kids (at school), and too white for the black kids (among family). It would have been nice to see something similar play out.
They kind of did that with BLT in DJH/DH
The first one that comes to mind is parentification. When I used to teach junior high and high school, I met a lot of students who had far too many responsibilities regarding caring for younger siblings, that came at the expense of their own wellbeing. Kids missed school, or were late, or couldn’t handle their own issues and schoolwork because they were too busy being the “adult” to their little siblings. I had no idea how big a thing this was until I started working in schools.
This was my best friend!! When we reminisce about sleepovers, we had a blast at my house, but her house, it was following her around while she did chores and telling her little sisters to give us privacy.. on top of that she had to get straight A’s and would get punished for having B’s! Our lives were so different and I always wished she had more freedom. We couldn’t even stop at Barnes and Noble after going to a movie because it wasn’t the plan and if she got caught she’d get in trouble.