Teenagers (web series)

Teenagers initially attracted media attention because its cast included former Degrassi stars Chloe Rose and Raymond Ablack.^[3] Louis Chunovic of Playback published a piece on the series, writing that "the young creators of Teenagers had to have plenty of luck, pluck, talent, and grit to get this far. And that portends a Hollywood ending".^[3] Houston Bone—who co-created the series with Sara Tamosauskas—began working on the concept in 2013 when he was 19 years old and in film school.^[4] When interviewed about his inspirations for Teenagers, Bone said:

I think John Hughes wrote teenage characters so honestly and authentically, but something has gotten lost in translation since then. Today, it feels like a lot of teenage characters are written very clean or flashy and that just wasn’t my reality growing up in the new millennium. Growing up is messy.^[5]

Speaking to IndieWire, Bone claimed that he created the series as a response to "white-washed" teen-driven television series that he watched while growing up, such as One Tree Hill; he also criticized what he perceived as a lack of people of color and LGBTQ characters on television that weren't "evil, damaged, or hyper-sexualized".^[4] Bone has cited Issa Rae's web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl and Larry Clark's 1995 film Kids as inspirations for the series.^[6]

All three seasons of the series were filmed in and around Mississauga on a shoe-string budget.^[7] The first two seasons of the series were funded "out of pocket".^[8] Bone approached actor Emmanuel Kabongo with the scripts and asked him to help produce the series, and they subsequently cast the rest of the characters together using actors from Toronto.^[8] Sara Tamosauskas co-wrote the first season alongside Bone.^[3] Kabongo served as executive producer for the first season, in addition to acting in all three seasons of the series.^[9]

For the second and third seasons of the series, Orphan Black director T.J. Scott served as executive producer.^[10] Garrett Hnatiuk, who portrays Porky in the series, co-wrote the second season with Bone.^[5][11] Bone wrote the third season by himself.^[8]

The series presents various storylines and characters in the form of vignettes. The central storylines of the first season revolve around Bree (Chloe Rose), who loses her virginity to someone with chlamydia, and T (Emmanuel Kabongo), who struggles with racism and bullying.^[12] The first season also focuses on a love triangle between T, Olive (Dana Jeffrey), and Jeremy (Nick Stojanovic), while the second and third seasons focus more on the female characters in the series, most notably a lesbian relationship between Olive and Sara (Allyson Pratt).^[13]