PEN15 | Shows | CBC Gem (2024)

30 s

PEN15 is middle school as it really happened, in all its cringe-worthy glory. Show creators, Maya Erskine, and Anna Konkle, who are full-on adults, play fictionalized depictions of their younger selves as awkward 7th-grade outcasts, surrounded by actual 13-year-olds.

Seventh grade seems to be off to a great start for Anna and Maya when posters saying that all of the cutest boys in school love Maya, only to discover that it’s because Maya has been declared “UGIS” - the “ugliest girl in school.”

A chance encounter in the girl’s restroom leave Anna and Maya fascinated by their bad-girl classmate Miranda, but they quickly get in over their head when they get invited to hang out with Miranda’s crew and Maya huffs computer cleaner.

Maya discovers masturbation and begins to wonder if she’s a pervert as everything around her begins to seem like it revolves around sex.

Anna gets a solo in the girls’ school concert and hopes to use it to impress her crush, Alex. Maya lies to her travelling father about having a percussion solo, and has to scramble to make that a reality when she discovers he’ll actually be at the concert.

While participating in a community service fashion show, Anna and Maya steal a classmate’s thong and begin to feel their hot-girl potential when they start taking turns wearing it to school.

When a class project takes an uncomfortable racist turn, Maya must confront how she feels about her Japanese heritage as Anna tries to solve racism by “creating a dialogue” in their school.

The girls finally get their own screen names, which Anna uses to talk to her new boyfriend Brendon. Maya begins a questionable romance with a stranger in a chatroom.

Anna and Maya are invited to a party at Brendon’s house to watch the movie Wild Things and Anna hits a relationship landmark with her boyfriend, while Maya tries to keep up.

Anna comes to stay with Maya while her parents are away at a couples retreat and the girls’ friendship falls into disarray as Maya begins to feel like her family prefers Anna.

Things remain tense between Maya and Anna, and worsen when Maya discovers that Anna hasn’t told her that her parents are getting divorced. Maya gets her first period and both girls prepare for the big dance of the semester.