High School Confidential, Episode 1: Lauren G. and Cappie

Have you been watching the show High School Confidential? It is the brain child of Sharon Liese, a single mom of a twelve-year-old daughter. The show documents the lives of 12 girls from the start of their freshman year in high school until their graduation and everything in between. All twelve girls attended Northwest High School in Overland Park, Kansas. The school has around 1,200 students. The show touches on unwanted pregnancy, sex, drinking, drugs, health crises and family issues. We see the girls through boyfriends, friendships, heartache and maturity.

I thought the show sounded interesting so I’ve been TiVoing it, but up until today I haven’t had time to watch it. Today I finally took some time to sit down and watch the first episode. The first episode follows Lauren G. and Cappie.

Lauren G. is a popular girl. She was captain of the drill team and homecoming princess. She loves to sing and dance and be on stage. She gets good grades. Her family and friends are very important to her. Her and her boyfriend both decided to wait until marriage before having sex.

When Lauren was a sophomore, her doctor scheduled an MRI because she was having some medical issues. The MRI found a benign tumor in her brain. Discovering the tumor was devastating to her and her family. Lauren said, “You think your invisible.” Many teens feel this way. They think it will never happen to them. Until it does.

Lauren eventually had surgery to remove the tumor and everything turned out great. She is now a sophomore at the University of Denver majoring in Psychology with a minor in Business and singing in an a cappella group.

Cappie is adventurous party girl who wants to be a photographer. Her parent’s separated before she was born and divorced when she was very young. By the time she started high school she rarely saw her dad and that was very painful. She said her Dad’s “not making us a priority and everybody wants to be a priority.”

Cappie started high school thinking there wasn’t much pressure to drink or do drugs, but that quickly changed. She quickly became a big part of the party scene. She was rarely home on weekends. Her and her friends (mostly boys) hung out in basements getting drunk and playing drinking games. Sometimes they would go outside and smoke pot in the backyard. By her sophomore year she was studying less and partying more. Her grades were really starting to suffer.

By the time she was a junior she “chilled on the partying.” After a while she decided to distance herself from her partying boyfriend. She ended up dating his best friend who was also her best friend’s boyfriend. She felt bad about that, but she was really happy with him.

Today she is majoring in teaching at the University of Kansas and she’s focusing more on studying then partying. And she is still with that boyfriend. They’ve been together for more than two year.

I found this show interesting because I could really relate to a lot of these girls. Some of their experiences reminded me of my high school experiences. It can be tough to navigate through those high school years. At that age you think you’re all grown up, but yet you still don’t always make the best decisions. It’s really a time of experimenting and finding your independence and true self. This show has potential to show how teen girls mature during those four short years of high school. I can’t wait to watch the next episode.