A new voice is settling in at CBC Gem, and it's young, female, and incredibly vibrant — not only thanks to the sheer diversity, but in the exploration of what it means to come of age when you're balancing school, family, relationships, and mental health.which tells the story of a set of Arab twins who choose separate paths in life as they leave high school; and, which follows a Pakistani Canadian teen and her attempt to gain more control in her life after a depression diagnosis.
Behind these Gen Z characters are millennial writers, creators and crew who have been toiling away, using their own experiences to craft these stories so a younger generation might see themselves represented in a way they never did, and find comfort in it. In the Middle East, it's taboo to talk about mental health and say that you're experiencing anxiety or anything like that... Seeing people of colour on TV have experiences like these, it contributes to breaking that taboo."Our creator, Sarah Haasz, is a very strong Korean woman getting to tell stories that are very meaningful and very personal to her," says Caldwell. "And all of our directors were Asian.
It all circles back to greater representation — how it can make an audience feel okay to be who they are, to feel their choices and histories recognized, and to discover the future that awaits them outside their bedroom door."It's so surreal," says Caldwell referring to this new generation of television. "Five to 10 years ago, the media landscape wasn't the same.