Spoiler alert: high school IRL is absolutely nothing like the high-stakes teen dramas and hilariously awkward comedies you were obsessed with at that age. Fortunately, there’s no shame in living vicariously through your favorite fictional teenagers and their exciting over-the-top lives. That’s way more fun than the reality of high school’s boring day-to-day drudgery. We’ve all become overly attached to a fictional crush or BFF. I know I did (shout out to Craig Manning and Blair Waldorf).
Now, as a “grown-up,” I’m still a major fan of adolescent dramas, and luckily for me, there are a whole new batch of more enlightened, more risqué, and often higher quality teen shows to binge these days. Between Euphoria, Sex Education, and Never Have I Ever, the best teen dramas of today are both escapist and relatable in ways that adult dramas just… aren’t. Let’s be honest, we haven’t fully shed our teenage skin—insecurities linger, imposter syndrome is real as hell. We’re all basically just winging it—no one actually knows what they’re doing.
So, if you’re like me and want to distract yourself from your very real adult responsibilities—your relationship, job, bills, and so on—I suggest diving into one of the 35 best teen dramas below for a healthy dose of exaggerations, cliff-hangers, and deep secrets. You know, all the good stuff. (Note: some of these shows start in middle school, and some of them might end up in college and beyond, but it’s all basically HS teen drama, ok? Good. Now get watching.)
Heartstopper
If you are or were a shy queer teen (or, just a shy teen ~in general~), you will absolutely love this story about Charlie and Nick. They’re friends…or are they?? One of the more uplifting ones on this list is—kind of spoiler alert—a love letter to young romance and LGBTQ+ teens openly thriving.
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Yellowjackets
Everyone and their mother is talking about this Showtime series for a reason. The Yellowjackets theories are Game of Thrones-levels of intricate, and at the core of it all lies a high school soccer team who survives a plane crash.
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PEN15
Okay, so this is technically about seventh graders (played by fully adult actors), but nothing makes you more nostalgic for being a teenager than remembering how awkward it was to be a preteen? Ha! My logic is flawless.
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Love, Victor
A part of the Love, Simon cinematic universe (I’m not kidding!), Victor is similarly exploring his sexual orientation (while also being a high schooler with high school problems) and turns to his older pal Simon when he feels conflicted. It’s actually a pretty novel look at someone exploring themselves without judgment or pressure, and if you liked the movie you’ll love this.
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High School Musical: The Musical: The Series
Come because you heard about the drama between Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett, and stay for a totally bonkers and delightful musical show that will fill both the Zac Efron and Glee-shaped holes in your heart. Disney adults apply within.
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Rebelde
Netflix has revived the classic hit Rebelde, which was originally an Argentine telenovela later adapted into a Mexican telenovela of the same name that ran for three seasons. The show follows a group of teens at a fancy boarding school who form a band. Fun fact: In the Mexican series, the actors actually *did* form a band called RBD!
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Derry Girls
Teenage girls trying to live their best lives while some seriously dangerous and distressing political conflict wages in the background. That’s not relatable at all in 2022, right?
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American Vandal
It’s so unfair that this show is equal parts perfect satire of true crime and teen drama. How dare it be this good at more than one thing?? I’m as invested in these teens’ futures and friendship as I am in the very, very silly mystery they’re solving.
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Runaways
What’s this…a Marvel show about teenagers? Don’t worry, you don’t need to watch a gazillion movies to understand what’s going on. It’s about a group of old friends who find out their parents are low-key supervillains and discover that their own powers and abilities might be the only way to defeat them. Also there’s, like, tons of feelings, and crushes, and hook-ups, and shenanigans.
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Julie and the Phantoms
Do not sleep on Julie and the Phantoms. It’s about a girl who gets the confidence to start sharing her music with the world from a ghost band from the ’90s. Yes, seriously! It makes no sense but I would protect those little ghost boys with my life…which also makes no sense, TBH.
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All American
We love a drama about athletes (cough, Friday Night Lights and One Tree Hill, cough cough). All American focuses on a rising high school football star, who is recruited from South Crenshaw High to play in Beverly Hills. Lots of drama ensues on and off the field, you know the drill.
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Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
If you’re wondering whether this is just Sabrina the Teenage Witch for Gen Z-ers, then yes, you are correct—but it’s also so much more than that. Kiernan Shipka (Sally from Mad Men, duh) plays Sabrina, a half-witch and half-mortal who struggles with her identity in spite of her powers. This adaption is dark, complicated, and really, freakin’, good.
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Outer Banks
Mystery. Romance. Treasure hunting. Cute boys. Despite its whack ending, Outer Banks became a fan-favorite nearly overnight, and it’s been renewed for a third season.
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Never Have I Ever
The Mindy Kaling-created series is the perfect rom-com with lots of depth—classic Mindy stuff. Devi is a sophomore balancing her Indian heritage while trying to fit in. And what’s the best way to do that, you ask? Get the most popular guy in high school to be her ~first~. The only issue is that she backs out at the last minute and then starts to fall for the last person she ever thought she’d like.
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Riverdale
A group of high school students devote themselves to figuring out how their classmate died. While they’re busy trying to put the pieces together, they discover some dark secrets about their small town and its residents. And yes, the series is based on the Archie comics and stars your faves Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse!
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Euphoria
Euphoria is undoubtedly intense, so if you’re looking for something lighter, feel free to move right along. Our protagonist is Rue (played by the Emmy-winning Zendaya), a 17-year-old high schooler fresh out of rehab. We get to know the complex web of people in her life who also are battling addictions, insecurities, and, you guessed it, lust.
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Sex Education
Can you imagine your mom being a sex therapist? Welp, that’s the reality for high schooler Otis, who doesn’t really like to publicize the fact that his mother helps people with their sexual struggles for a living. But then he realizes that with the sex knowledge he’s accumulated, he could actually boost his own popularity by counseling other kids, so he teams up with a girl he’s crushing on to create an underground therapy sitch for his fellow classmates.
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Freaks and Geeks
Despite its short life on NBC (so short, the last three episodes aired on something called Fox Family Channel), this dramedy gave some of today’s biggest stars (ahem, Seth Rogen, Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel, and Busy Philipps) their first major roles. The show deals with extremely regular and relatable stuff: friendship, love, and the agony of being weird in high school.
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Gossip Girl
Ah, yes, the show your parents really, realllllllly didn’t want you to watch when you were in high school—maybe ’cause of all the sex, drugs, and underage drinking? There is nothing more delicious than a voyeuristic look into the fabulous (and dramatic) lives of the upper-crust of the Upper East Side. Also, a young Blake Lively and Penn Badgley dating on-screen and off-screen? Yes, please.
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The O.C.
Before Gossip Girl round one, Josh Schwartz introduced us to Marissa Cooper, Ryan Atwood, and Ryan Atwood’s questionable tank top. The pilot alone was a major triumph for television in the early ’00s. The Chrismukkah episodes were also always a real treat.
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Pretty Little Liars
From blackmail to ~*all the deaths*~, PLL kept fans on high alert from the very first scene. Loosely based on a novel series by the same name, the show is essentially a shiny whodunnit. Queen bee Allison vanishes, leaving her former BFFs to pick up the pieces, move on with their lives, and—most urgently—figure out who “A” is and why they won’t stop sending the group anonymous text messages.
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Friday Night Lights
Save for a random season 2 storyline (sorry, Landry and Tyra, but that whole murder thing was just weird), Friday Night Lights was nearly perfect. Has there ever been a TV character more sensitive than Matt Saracen? A coach hotter than Eric Taylor? A bo$ more powerful than Tami Taylor? And don’t even get me started on the beautiful specimen known as Tim Riggins…
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy really paved the way for all the supernatural faves of today (see next entry). She embodied everything any 16-year-old heroine should be: fearless, curious, and strong-willed. She also had the ultimate BFF in Willow Rosenberg (who broke barriers of her own by being part of one of TV’s first major lesbian storylines). Quick, call the Willow in your life and perform your favorite song from the show’s musical episode, “Once More, With Feeling.” Life is better when it’s lived like a musical.
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The Vampire Diaries
Elena, Damon, and brother dearest Stefan were part of one of the greatest (and oldest, because vampires) love triangles to ever hit the small screen, and we’re grateful for it. We now live in a world where there are no more new episodes of The Vampire Diaries since the show wrapped for good after eight delicious seasons on The CW in 2017. Hopefully, it’s just stuck between life and death and is planning a brief return to the mortal world sometime in the near future?
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Beverly Hills, 90210
Being rich and beautiful didn’t mean the teens of West Beverly Hills High were safe from very real problems. Over 10 seasons, the show dealt with serious plotlines involving drug abuse, alcoholism, date rape, domestic violence, racism, suicide, pregnancy, and AIDS. It also gave viewers very serious crushes on David Silver and Dylan McKay.
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Dawson’s Creek
While Joey Potter was not the first teenager to climb through a window on TV (see: Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell and Sam Anders from Clarissa Explains It All), she was the first to do it while delivering volumes of script (and long, complicated words). This was all thanks to WB/CW legend Kevin Williamson, who also wrote I Know What You Did Last Summer. The fictional town of Capeside was a nice escape for those who were also trying to figure out what it was they wanted in life and how their crushes, weird BFFs, and family members fit into their grand plans.
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My So-Called Life
Being a teenager is hard and Angela (Claire Danes) showed that in a truly beautiful and raw form on TV. It’s a tragedy the show only had one season, and it’s a tragedy that not all boyfriends are named Jordan Catalano.
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Party of Five
For six emotionally crushing seasons, viewers joined the Salingers at the dinner table to watch big bro Charlie deal with his own problems while taking care of his brothers and sisters after the death of their parents. There was something for everyone, whether it was Julia’s ever-changing hair, Bailey’s charms, or Claudia’s strong sense of independence (despite starting the show as a mere 11-year-old). And then there’s wee baby Owen, who did that weird thing on TV where a character ages faster than everyone else to move a plot along.
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Gilmore Girls
If “Oy with the poodles already” or “Kropogs” means anything to you, Stars Hollow holds a special place in your heart. From her days at Chilton to Yale (and beyond, with Netflix’s revival in 2016), Rory was the epitome of what it means to work really, really hard at your dreams while dealing with a mostly terrible lineup of boyfriends. The word “mostly” is used here because Jess Mariano will always be her one true love. (I said what I said!!)
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Veronica Mars
Name a better teen spy who also has a talent for delivering savage comebacks. I’m waiting.
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The Wonder Years
Accompanied by the narration of an older Kevin Arnold, viewers were brought back to the many firsts of his adolescence from his first real relationship to his eventual heartbreak. To this day, many are still not over the outcome of Kevin and Winnie’s love story, even if the show reminds us that “things never turn out exactly the way you plan them.” Somewhere in an alternate TV universe, Kevin and Winnie are lounging at their second beach house after receiving news about the birth of their fourth grandchild, I’m just saying.
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Degrassi: The Next Generation
One of the longest-running teen dramas on TV, Degrassi tackled subjects like drug use, suicide, mental health, bullying, racism, teen pregnancy, sexism, and relationships. While Drake has emerged as the most famous cast member to date, Degrassi was blessed with a stellar rotating ensemble that propelled the show to 14 seasons.
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Skins
Much like Degrassi, Skins bravely swam in controversial waters as it covered everything from mental illness to substance abuse to sexuality. Written by teens for teens, the show helped launch the careers of names you are more than familiar with these days including Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel, Daniel Kaluuya, and Game of Thrones stars Hannah Murray and Joe Dempsie. A North American adaptation was made for MTV in 2011, but it didn’t catch on. Too bad.
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The Fosters
Teri Polo and Sherri Saum play Stef and Lena, a cop and school vice principal who are married and have five kids, four of them adopted. Basically, everyone’s a Foster on The Fosters and the door is always open, no matter your sexual orientation, age, or color of your skin.
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Daria
Sure, Daria was animated, but that didn’t make her problems as someone who was a little bit different any less real. High school was a real pain, a “sick sad world,” if you will. Daria and her Lawndale crew just made the experience all the more charming.
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