A moving film about teenage trauma, relationships and the struggle to evolve

Grace : So, I couldn’t sleep last night I was searching through Mrs Pine’s syllabus and I noticed a very interesting trend.

Grace hands Henry the following pile of books :

Grace : Look at them!

Henry : Okay

The Sorrows of Young Werther

Romeo and Juliet

The Catcher in the Rye

Ordinary People

Henry ; Yeah. They’re, um, all about young people.

Grace : And they all involve suicide

Romeo and Juliet off themselves

Werther shoots himself

Holden contemplates suicide.

Conrad tries to kill himself by slashing his wrists.

Henry : This is what you were up thinking about last night?

Grace : Yeah

Henry : Is that normal?

Grace : Jesus!

Henry :Well I you seemed down this week, so its a little scary, I guess

Grace : Okay. How do I explain this? Think about what it means to be a teenager. Okay? Your parents pressure you to succeed. Your friends pressure you to do shit you dont’ want to do Social media pressures you to hate your body, It’s hard even you’re a well adjusted kid from a good family.

Henry : Okay

Grace : So now imagine that you can’t be with the person you love, like Romeo and Juliet or Werther or you lose the person that you love like Holden or Conrad. There is a reason why, when every author from Shakespeare to Salinger, writes about young people., they can’t avoid the truth that being young is so painful, it’s almost, like, too much to feel.

Henry : Yeah, like are you suicidal.. or… ?

Grace : God, no I mean. Look I am not going to kill myself. But have I thought about what it might be like to not be here anymore? Yeah. And I don’t say that casually but I do say it because hiding that shit and not saying it makes it worse. It should be talked about.. All of our shit should be talked about. The teenage years are.. limbo. You’re somewhere between being a kid and an adult and the world, uh, tells you to be mature and express yourself, but the minute that you do, it tells you to shut up. The thing is adults are just scarred kids who were lucky enough to make it out of limbo alive. Which is why the theme of our last issue should be “Teenage Limbo.”

Henry : (with a wry smile) Yeah!

Grace and Henry conversing in the library about the things that need to be said in the movie Chemical Hearts.