Maya ishii peters9/24/2023 Recently, Erskine and Konkle stopped by the NYLON offices, and I talked with them about what makes 7th grade such a special time in our lives, how it was to wear braces and low-rise jeans again, and what about making the show proved cathartic for them. But Erskine and Konkle handle this responsibility well, and aren't afraid to tackle the darker parts of becoming a person in the world-like dealing with racist peers or coping with your parents' divorce-all while balancing it with pitch-perfect humor, and lots of great '00s fashion references. It's a lot of responsibility for anyone of any age, but certainly adds an incalculable burden to shoulders that are already weighed down by fully packed Jansport backpacks. It's when we understand that we wield power over other people we have the ability to hurt them, to love them, to change their lives in the same way they change ours. It's when we become conscious-and self-conscious-of how other people view us, and of how we view ourselves. This makes a certain kind of sense, of course, our middle school years are formative in just about every possible way this is the time in our lives when we define who we want to be on our own terms. Meanwhile, the roles of their fellow middle schoolers-from mean girls to cool guys and everything in-between-are played by actual teenagers, turning the awkward factor up to yet another level.Īnd yet, perhaps what's most surprising about the show is remembering not how far we've come, as adults, from our pimply, greasy-haired selves, but how informed our lives still are by who we were back then even in our 30s, the 13-year-old version of ourselves is still omnipresent. The premise of PEN15 is as simple as it is perverse: It follows the lives of best friends Maya and Anna as they make their way-awkwardly, naturally-through 7th grade in the year 2000 but rather than have 13-year-olds portray Maya and Anna, Erskine and Konkle play the roles themselves, in all their 31-year-old glory. "I think my favorite thing," I replied, "was how stiff that thong got when Maya washed it with hand soap." Just typing those words made me laugh quietly to myself, thinking about how Maya Erskine, who plays Maya Ishii-Peters on the show, shut herself up in her bathroom, yelling at her mother that she'd be washing her hands for a very long time, and then furiously set to work trying to make clean a very dirty, very pink, very stolen thong.īut, the truth is, it's hard to single out favorite things about PEN15, the Hulu show created by Erskine, Konkle, and Sam Zvibleman, because each of the show's 10 episodes is loaded with moments of cringe-inducing glory, all designed to transport the viewer back into a world of first kisses, braces-featuring smiles, and the kind of extremely low-rise pants that we're horrified are going to make a comeback. "My favorite thing, I think, is the tall girl arm thing," my coworker, Dani, told me over Gchat, referencing the way that PEN15's Anna Konkle holds her forearm self-consciously across her stomach, slumping into herself, in a stance recognized by tall girls everywhere, but perfected by Konkle's character, Anna Kone.
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