Something new in teen drama...for once

As I have written before, teen drama shows are all the same. They will all say that they are groundbreaking, new, and fresh. They will always say that they "tackle tough issues." But those issues are always the same: divorce, rape, drinking, sex, drugs, being gay, eating disorders, etc.

Degrassi: The Next Generation debuted its 10th season a couple weeks ago, premiering a new episode each night, making it the show to look forward to every single night.

Being a fan from season one of the Next Generation, I have noticed a lot of repeats in this season. They seemed to be running out of story lines. A girl has weight issues, a girl goes from dork to cool, a perfectionist tries for her dream job, etc.

But tonight they showed something I have never seen before in teen shows, and I have seen a lot. A character on the show, Adam, revealed to be a transgender.

Now, it was pretty obvious it was a female actress from the beginning. Especially since it is one I recognized from another Canadian show, "Life with Derek" (Canadians recycle their actors a lot). But the actress played "Adam" who all the other characters seemed to be convinced was a male.

Then in this episode, Adam revealed that he was born in a female's body, but has related to more of a male identity since he was four or five.

I happened to see a documentary on transgenders in one of my communication courses this past year, so I already knew a bit about it, and came to understand this lifestyle a bit more than before.

This is a two-part episode that concludes tomorrow night, and I am excited to see what happens. In part one, the school finds out Adam was born female, and tomorrow night the previews show that Adam dresses and goes as his former self, Gracie, to try to put a stop to the teasing and torture at school. But it looks like Adam is super uncomfortable as a female, and it will be hard on him.

At the end of tonight's episode, the actress who plays Adam does a PSA directing viewers to the PFLAG.org site for more information.

Here is a trailer for all the episodes this week, so it only shows a smidge of the Adam storyline...