The Secret Life of the American Teenager

By Joe Leary | Jan 12, 2010

While the subject of raging hormones resulting in unexpected teen pregnancies can often be the stuff of adult prime-time drama, rarely is it ever portrayed with enough accuracy or poignancy that it can similarly find a sizable audience within the very demographic it had ultimately sought to inform.

Now, with the introduction of Season 2 of the popular US hit series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Canadian fans can experience the program that has generated considerable buzz among US television viewers since its debut in 2008.

Starring Shailene Woodley as Amy; a fun-loving girl who returns from band-camp unaware that that her night of passion with a local Lothario has expedited her call to motherhood, The Secret Life has appeared to strike a chord amongst the youth market.

“I thought it was really incredible how they were dealing with a lot of issues that teenagers were going through in life that affect them like,” she tells me of her first impressions upon hearing of the project. “Issues like divorce and boyfriends, high school in general; there are just so many themes that our show covers. I was really intrigued by it. With shows like us and Juno, and all the other avenues out there that talk about teen pregnancies, it gives a lot of teen mothers the chance to relate their stories to one of the characters and just know that they’re not alone in the process.”
While Woodley is a veritable TV veteran at the ripe old age of 18, co-star Daren Kagasoff - who plays Ricky, the father of the baby – had never acted prior and says that despite various regional disparities that may exist between the US and Canada, the program seemingly resonates with youth on either side of the border.

“Teenagers gel with the show because of the kind of topics that are brought up,” Kagasoff informs me. “Regardless of where you’re from, teens go through the same kind of things. My character is kind of the bad boy and Shay’s character is really sweet and innocent. Each of the characters in the show is so identifiable and self-defined.”

In only its second season, The Secret Life of the American Teenager – seen Monday’s on Much Music - has already proven to be a bona fide ratings hit, having broken its own audience record for viewers this season, and winning two Teen Choice Awards in the process.

Kagasoff notes that while his screen debut has not been without its perks thus far, viewers should note that he really is nothing like his television persona in his everyday life.

“They wonder if I’m like my character Ricky,” he says of his numerous female fans curiosity upon meeting him in person.
“In the first season, he was a jerk and kind of slept around and didn’t take any responsibility for his actions. I guess when they meet me in person now they realize I’m actually shy, and I have a bit of a problem in the lady department.”

It’s still early enough in the New Year that a plethora of statistical date compiled during the previous months and beyond, continues to generate interest among society’s myriad number crunchers.

And given the proliferation of social-network media sites within the past decade, it should come as no surprise to you that the American Dialect Society has deemed Tweet its Word of the Year for 2009, while Google earns the distinction of being declared Word of the Decade.

Past winners of the Word of the Year have included such perfunctory terms as 1993’s Information Superhighway, Y2K in 1999, 2003’s Metrosexual and last year’s much-hackneyed term, Bailout.

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