'Pen15' Season 2 wants girls to know they are not the problem

At one point in the first half of Pen15 Season 2, Maya and Anna make wishes. They are just young enough to have faith in magic and just old enough to wish for solutions to heartbreakingly adult issues. Maya, half-Japanese and self conscious about her appearance, wishes for blonde hair. Anna, whose parents use her as a pawn in their divorce, wishes she “wasn’t a problem.” 

It’s a brief, intentionally unfunny moment that underscores Anna’s emotional pain and encapsulates what Pen15 Season 2 wants to say about being a girl on the cusp of teenhood. The primary message is that being a girl sucks. The second message is that it’s not the girls’ fault.  Read more...