As I previously wrote about in this blog entry, the concept of having an “inner child” aspect of ourselves is commonly known by most people, especially those on a self healing path. In my experience working with parts of myself and with others, I have also identified that there is a well formed part or subpersonality that we call in SoulFullHeart our inner wounded teenager. This aspect of ourselves is “stuck” subconsciously in the teenage phase of our lives, where our consciousness was budding, our identity forming, and when the rejection or acceptance of the templating offered to us by our parents was happening inside of us. In acknowledgement of this part of ourselves, I previously wrote a blog entry recommending emotional movies for our inner teenager and I wanted to follow up that blog article with one offering emotional television shows for your inner teenager.
This is what I previously wrote about the inner teenager, “In mainstream culture, teenagers are typically seen as ‘difficult’ and ‘hard to reach’ with parents expressing frustration around dealing with them. I feel this viewpoint about teenagers is held by the false self version of the parents (usually the matriarch and patriarch) who are working to suppress their own inner teen and its’ tumultuous and rebellious feelings. I’ve been a parts work facilitator for several teenagers and I was awed and touched by how they held the process of getting to know aspects of themselves. I hold a deep respect for them, as I do the part of me that holds teenage frequencies. The teenagers that I’ve worked with still have an identity forming, so they felt more open to parts work and had an easier time challenging the false versions of themselves. The challenge in working with teens was supporting them to discover and arise into their authentic self while not deconstructing too much of what had formed related to their parents and cultural conditioning. So, I have experienced that our inner teenager is often most able to embrace this esoteric and foreign idea of parts work and actually greatly benefits by being felt in what had been previously suppressed in them.”
In support of our inner teenagers and also of souls who are currently in the teenage phase of life, I wanted to share television shows that I felt emotionally captured what it feels like to be a teenager. There is a sense in many of these television shows that the teens are much more emotionally aware (even if they seem ‘shut down’ or remote on the surface,) more honest, and more spiritually porous than the adults around them, especially their parents. While you are watching these television shows, see if you can feel your inner teenager and begin to get a sense of what your emotional experience as a teenager was as consciously embracing this wonderful part of you holds a big key to your authentic self expression as an adult.
This series is based on the movie of the same name about a small town football team in Western Texas and the coach at the heart of the team’s surprise success. Even though this show uses football as the backdrop and setting for the characters, this show isn’t so much about football as it is about relationships. Relationships between teens, players, husband and wife, parents and children, etc. that are complicated and sometimes difficult, painful and often enlivening too. This show so captures how it is to be conditionally and culturally influenced by your environment as a teenager, either pushing away from or overly embracing the templating you’ve been offered. Anchoring the show with heart and realness are the coach and his wife, who reach out. teach, and learn from the teens around them, including their own daughter. One theme the show explores quite often is male templating and how the coach serves as a surrogate father or “king maker” for the young, often troubled male teen players on his team.
Availability: Five Seasons On Netflix
The characters in this show, which only ran for one season, are individually unique and can’t really be grouped into categories, despite the name of the show. Yes, they can be labeled as “freaks” or “geeks”, but feeling them beyond these labels is so effectively explored and offered that you quickly forget what you previously assumed about them. These show is truly about the teens, as the adults react to them rather than have featured story lines of their own, unlike other shows on this list. The teens are struggling in moments, triumphing in other moments, and just plain real feeling in all moments. There are truly funny moments too, just like in life, along with moments that are painful or embarrassing. It’s a shame that the show only lasted one season and is probably related to how real it feels. You’ll recognize many of the faces in the cast, who got their start on this show.
Availability: On Netflix
I watched this show when it originally aired while I was pregnant with my daughter and then re-watched it with her again when she was 15 years old, the same age as the main character. My daughter was deeply moved and struck by it and it was a touching experience for us to watch it together as I could feel her inner teenager and mine connecting with each other. There is an authenticity to this show that stands up even years later, even when the fashion choices of the main characters are no longer trendy. This show captured the angst of teenage hormones and love, including exploration of a gay character, with reverence and, at the same time, with a sense of older and wiser perspective. There’s a ‘watching a trainwreck” feeling to watching it, similar to how life actually feels as a teenager…anything wonderful or tragic can possibly happen in any moment. I wish this show had lasted longer, but again, it feels like it was just simply too real for mass audiences to embrace, even though it has a loyal cult following and launched the careers of Claire Danes and Jared Leto.
Availability: On DVD and Netflix in the US
Unlike these other shows, there is nothing realistic about the setting for Buffy The Vampire Slayer. It doesn’t feel like a typical “teenager” show, especially since many of the characters are vampires and immortal or possess supernatural gifts. Yet, even with the supernatural elements, at the heart of this show is Buffy, a teenager in exploration of herself and her relationship to her gifts as a vampire slayer. People who love this show, and there are many, appreciate how it is entertaining on so many levels- as a thriller, as a comedy, as a romance, as a teen exploration- yet, also, how it can be deep and vulnerable even as it is cheeky and witty. In later seasons, the show got better and better at exploring the darker side of the characters and the “main big bad” were not just cookie cutter villains. At the heart of the show is the friendship between Buffy, Willow, and Zander- creating connection, community, and meaning for them no matter how insane the circumstances were that they found themselves in. I watched most of this show as it aired, even when I was watching little to no other TV. Also, it was a show that was able to finish out its complete story, wrap up all the story arches, and create a decent completion for its characters, unlike other shows on this list.
Jillian Vriend is co-creator of SoulFullHeart, parts work facilitator, author of a book and on this blog, and sacred humanity-Divine Feminine teacher. For more information about the SoulFullHeart Way Of Life, visit soulfullheart.com.
