My favourite teen protagonists tend to have something in common. They’re smart, independent young women who, for one reason or another, exist in the periphery of their school’s social scene. I’m talking about Veronica Mars, Rory Gilmore, and Buffy Summers.
Of course each of these teen heroines also happen to belong to some of the best teen television out there. Each one of these young women benefit from solid writing, expressing themselves clearly and cleverly in snappy dialogue that elevates them above their peers, (and probably most of the audience).
It’s hard to pin point exactly what it is that draws me so effectively into these characters in particular, because those traits that set them apart seem to show up as a packaged deal: The quality program, the general social ostracism at school, the small number of loyal friends, the witty one-liners, the single parent, and really the bad-assery of these girls who (no matter how in love they are, or how many guys fall for them) are independent women to the core.
Despite the fact that as an angsty teen it’s pretty hard to identify with that kind of strength, it’s that much more important to create these televisual role models. Sure, I occasionally feel like an under-achiever (when’s the last time I solved a murder, got into Harvard and Yale, or saved the world from vampires?!), but serving up wimpy, pathetic girls just because most of us go through a wimpy, pathetic phase shouldn’t be what television is about.
With this in mind, I have been keeping my eyes peeled for the next super-fantastic, sassy, teenage, female heroine. Unexpectedly, I think I’ve found her in Tessa Altman of Suburgatory: Tessa’s been moved out of New York by her single dad; her Big City upbringing has resulted in a sarcastic sense of humour; she doesn’t fit in at her upper-class, suburban high school (although she found two friends in other geeky outsiders); and most importantly, Tessa honestly doesn’t give a crap what anybody else thinks, and is willing to speak her mind. True, this silly, techno-coloured sitcom is not the “quality TV” of the Dramas mentioned above, but many of the other characteristics hold, which, I suspect, is what keeps me coming back, whenever I happen to have 22 minutes to spare.
