Adolescence on Netflix: When the Victim’s Voice is Erased
- Dr. Vidya Premkumar
- Apr 4
- 4 min read
How a Story Meant to Warn Ends Up Reinforcing the Silence—And Why Education Must Step In
Watching Adolescence on Netflix left me with a knot in my stomach. Not just because of the tragic subject matter—an adolescent boy accused of murdering a classmate—but because of what the series chose not to show.
The story follows Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old boy navigating middle school, loneliness, and the disturbing pull of online extremism. The victim, Katie Leonard, is introduced not as a character but as an event. We see reactions to her death, media frenzy, and fragments of memory. But her voice? Her perspective? Her emotional landscape? Nowhere to be found.
For a series that seeks to explore why a boy might commit such a horrific act, it completely misses the other half of the narrative—the why and who of the girl he killed.
A Technically Brilliant Series That Tells Only Half the Story
There's no denying the craft: Adolescence is visually bold, shot in continuous takes, creating an immersive and claustrophobic atmosphere. The performances—especially by Owen Cooper as Jamie and Stephen Graham as his father—are raw and heart-wrenching. The series attempts to depict how online misogyny, emotional neglect, and peer rejection can create a toxic inner world.
But in doing so, it centralizes Jamie’s pain while minimizing Katie’s existence.
We know, for instance, that Katie bullied Jamie online and called him an “incel” in front of her peers. That moment, which could’ve been a powerful exploration of digital cruelty, turns into a pivot for Jamie’s descent. Instead of examining Katie’s motivations, peer dynamics, or how children internalize social media culture, we are left with a one-sided depiction—another cautionary tale where a young girl becomes little more than a footnote in a troubled boy’s story.
The Silent Scream of Misrepresentation
This erasure is more than a narrative flaw—it is a cultural mirror. As someone who leads gender sensitisation, digital safety, and sexuality education workshops, I see this pattern repeatedly. When victims are not humanised, when their complexity is ignored, society absorbs a dangerous message: women and girls are collateral damage in someone else’s emotional breakdown.
In our workshops, we teach young people that empathy is not just about feelings—it’s about attention. About representation. About seeing others as fully human. Adolescence had the perfect opportunity to do this—and it didn’t.
Technology, Symbolism, and the Generation Gap
Another insight the series offers, which we explore deeply in our digital safety sessions, is how clueless many adults are about the digital worlds their children inhabit.
There’s a pivotal scene where Jamie’s father, his teacher, and the police look at the emoji messages exchanged by kids and realise they don’t understand what any of it means. They don’t know what the eggplant emoji signifies. They don’t grasp the hidden meaning behind fire or goat emojis, or how kids use private Discord channels and memes as weapons.
This isn’t just dramatic irony—it’s a warning.
Too many parents, educators, and even law enforcement officers are completely disconnected from the codes, cultures, and communication styles that define children’s online lives today. This generational disconnect leaves kids exposed to:
Cyberbullying from classmates
Grooming by strangers
Online radicalisation through incel forums and misogynistic influencers
Peer validation systems that reward cruelty over compassion
In Adolescence, this chasm between generations is loud and painful. Jamie’s father tries, but he’s out of his depth. His teachers are indifferent. The systems that should protect both Jamie and Katie fail them completely.
Every Generation Fears “The New”
As highlighted by @drcramcaswell in the Instagram post I resonated with, every decade has its scapegoat:
In the 1950s, it was Elvis and rock & roll.
In the 1980s, it was video games and Dungeons & Dragons.
Today, it’s TikTok, Discord, and Instagram.
Parents often panic about the influence of technology or counterculture on their kids. And while the tools change, the core remains the same: kids are trying to understand the world, and they’re doing it with or without us.
Education—not surveillance, not bans—is the answer.
Solutions We Need Now
Here’s what that Instagram post also got absolutely right—and what we deeply believe at Jñāna Vistar:
Teach kids to recognise misogyny and call it out.
Let them understand how it looks, sounds, and seeps into everything from memes to music videos.
Equip boys with healthier models of masculinity.
Vulnerability is not weakness. Empathy is not emasculation.
Provide robust emotional support systems in schools.
Children need safe spaces to talk about rejection, rage, identity, and desire.
Educate adults.
Our workshops train teachers and parents to decode online culture, speak their children's language, and bridge that chasm.
Demand better storytelling.
The media has power. Let’s hold it accountable for representing all perspectives, not just the loudest or most tragic ones.
The Role of Jñāna Vistar
This is why we do what we do. At Jñāna Vistar, we aren’t here to moralise or scold. We’re here to listen, educate, and empower—students, parents, teachers, and institutions.
When we talk to students about sexting or cyberbullying or gender stereotypes, we’re not just teaching them how to stay safe—we’re teaching them how to stay human in a digital world that’s trying to dehumanise them every day.
See Katie
Katie Leonard deserved more than a few photos and lines of dialogue. She deserved a voice, a backstory, and a presence, but she was erased from her own story.
Let’s not erase the Katies we meet in real life.
Let’s name, listen to, and protect them—not just in memory, but through action.
About the Author Dr. Vidya Premkumar is the Co-founder of Jñāna Vistar. With over 22 years of teaching experience and a focus on inclusive, humane education, she works on gender, sexuality, and digital citizenship through workshops across India.
Explore our workshops on gender sensitisation, digital safety, and sexuality education to learn how we can support your school or organisation.
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